asked the Minister for Local Government if he will indicate how many building grants remain unpaid in respect of West Cork in cases where the certificates of completion have been issued and if he will state (1) the cause of delay in this matter; (2) when approximately payment will be made in these cases, and (3) what position will obtain in the future regarding payments of grants.
- West Cork Building Grants.
Grants under the Housing Acts in West Cork remain unpaid in respect of 20 houses for which certificates of satisfactory completion have been received in the Department. The average length of time which has elapsed since the receipt of the certificates is 14 days. This represents the average time required for checking the relevant documents and for carrying out the other normal administrative preliminaries to the making of payments. Payment will be made within a few days in all cases where the preliminaries are found to be in order. It is intended that, as far as possible, the average period for the payment of grants will be a fortnight after the receipt of certificates in cases where no question of eligibility arises.
Can I take it that the large number of complaints that have emanated from the constituency about housing grants will be dealt with in the next fortnight or, at any rate, before Christmas?
I have given the Deputy the number of cases outstanding and in all these cases the grants will be paid within a few weeks.
There are a number of cases which I personally referred to the Minister so long ago as three months in which the grants have not yet been paid.
In my reply to the Deputy, I stated that a certain amount of checking is necessary in the case of all applications. The average time required for checking is about 14 days which also represents the length of time which has elapsed since the receipt of the certificates.
I can give the Minister certain cases which were referred to him three or four months ago and in which the claims have not yet been paid.
There may be other factors in these cases.