asked the Minister for Local Government if he will state (a) the amount of money being provided for county and main roads by the Clare County Council out of local rates for the year 1950-51 indicating separately the amounts for maintenance and road construction; (b) the amount being allotted from the Road Fund for the same period for these purposes; (c) how these amounts have been and will be expended in respect of each month since the beginning of the financial year 1950-51, in (i) supervision; (ii) machinery costs; (iii) labour force employed; (iv) transport, mechanical and horse-drawn; and (v) materials; (d) how many engineers are now employed in supervision and how many were employed in a similar capacity in 1937; (e) whether any portion of the salaries of the engineers or of the machinery costs is paid out of the Road Fund; and, if so, how much in each case.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - County Clare Roads.
(a) The amounts provided out of rates by Clare County Council for road works in the present year is £85,481. No segregation of this amount as between road maintenance and construction is available in the Department; (b) on the basis of the particulars furnished by the local authority, the grant from the Road Fund towards the upkeep of main roads will be £21,828. A sum of £82,400 has been made available from the Road Fund for the improvement of main and county roads; (c) particulars are not available. As to the general policy in planning prospective expenditure, I would invite the Deputy's attention to the terms of my reply to Deputy Commons's question on this matter yesterday; (d) nine engineers are at present employed and their duties include the supervision of various aspects of road works. The corresponding figure for 1937 was seven; (e) no part of the salaries of engineers is met out of the Road Fund, but in addition to his salary each engineer filling a permanent post on the council's staff may, subject to certain conditions, be paid a Road Fund allowance in addition to the ordinary Road Fund grants allocated to the council. Machinery charges, in so far as they are a charge against the particular grant-aided work, are recouped from the Road Fund to the same extent as other allowable expenditure is recouped.