In recent years local government has become so widespread in its impact on everybody that one has to look at it to-day in the concept of a subsidiary money raising body to the central Exchequer. The first problem one has to face and that the Minister must face is the extraordinary impact of the incidence of increased rates on a very large group of people. There has been a motion standing in my name here for a considerable length of time on the Private Members' List, dealing with the manner in which the Minister might be able to alleviate the distress that can be caused by the present method of rate collection. Taking a cross-section of view, whether it be from the local judiciary who have to enforce a certain type of writ and order at the behest of the local authority, or whether it be from people of reasonable substance who have to meet the present impact of rates, there is a constant worry and a constant menace there to the normal economy as we know it.
I think we have come to the stage when we must ask ourselves how far, if successfully at all, there has been a segregation of responsibility as between the central Executive and the local authority. My own feeling has always been that there has not been a clear enough line of demarcation between the duties of both sections. That involves, to my mind, a tremendous expenditure on liaison staff and on the duplication of functions of the Department and the local authority. The incidence of increasing rates is closely bound up with the ever-increasing administrative staffs in local authorities and Government Departments. People throughout the lengthand breadth of Ireland—particularly those living on limited salaries—are feeling very severely the impact of increased rates and of various other types of increased local charges.
We have heard aired here the considerable grievance of people who are suffering the impetus of revaluation of their property. That may not be under the direct control of the Minister, I admit, but it is the subsequent charge that becomes payable to these people by way of rates that I want to get after. We find people to-day feeling the pinch. We know that is so, without our being gloomy. We have heard discussions, even during question time to-day, which indicate quite clearly that there is a rising incidence of unemployment and that for the first time in our history we are going to have severe unemployment virtually on the eve of Christmas.
That situation arises in many instances from gross miscalculation or from inopportune planning—the responsibility for which I am going to place in the course of my argument to some extent on the many interminable delays one finds in the Department over which the present Minister presides. Whether or not it is a consequence of the managerial system, there has been in recent years an immense increase in the administrative costs of every local authority. There has been a very substantial increase in administrative cost in relation to the county council that operates in the area which I represent.
When Deputy Desmond talks in his lucid way as a member of Cork County Council, he is talking in the full knowledge of the difficulties that are being experienced throughout Cork and particularly in West Cork—in some cases owing to the delays in the Department, and in other cases owing to the axe that the Minister has applied to works under the Local Authorities (Works) Act. It is small consolation to people who are groaning under the burden of rates that this inept attitude exists. It is no consolation to those who are feeling the impact of unemployment in rural areas throughout Ireland that the money should be available but is not availableto keep them in gainful employment doing work of national importance.
In the light of the experience we now have, I do not know how the Minister justifies the drastic reduction under the Local Authorities (Works) Act, but I know this, as an incontrovertible fact, that were a reasonable sum of money in excess of the present allocation available under that Act we could certainly ameliorate the lot of thousands of people throughout the country and we could certainly ameliorate the lot of hundreds of people in areas like Berehaven, Kilcashin, Bantry, Kilcrohane and other lonely areas in the district I represent. If one considers the problem in its basic reality, one sees we have reached the stage where we must review—and it is the duty of the Minister to see that such a review is carried out—the functions of the local authorities as distinct from the functions of the Department. Having segrated those functions, the Minister must find some way of cutting the inordinate delays that exist, particularly in a large scheme of planning, between the move for the acquisition of a site and the ultimate commencement of the work. I do not want the Minister to think that I am going to be as unreasonable as to lay some of the interminable delays on title, and various investigations of title, at his door. The time has come for a comprehensive review of the difficulties that are created by the Department's not being able to swing into large schemes and to help the local authorities to swing into large schemes. Employment difficulties and hardships are being inflicted throughout the country by a lack of these schemes for immediate operation.
Local government has become so widespread a problem that one must consider it in three different aspects. There is no doubt at all about it but that the increased cost of building and the increased cost of local authority housing have placed an incidence of rent on the backs of certain people that can be severe. There is no doubt at all about it but that the increase in rates throughout the country generally has created tremendous hardship in limited income groups. Thereis no doubt at all but that the duplication of functions, resulting in interminable delays as between local authorities and the Department of Local Government, has led to considerable wastage of public money and considerable hold-up in progress.
One sometimes wonders where the function of a local authority ends, or if it has any end, and where the function of the Department of Local Government begins. No matter what assurances we give in this House, or what answers we get to various parliamentary questions, there are ever-recurring delays in connection with all types of sanctions that must emanate from the Department of Local Government, whether these sanctions be merely simple matters in relation to housing grants to which people are entitled or whether they be in connection with sites or plans for bigger developments. It is time the question was asked bluntly: What is the cause of it all? It is also time the question was asked bluntly: What is going to be done to try to curb the spiral of ever-increasing costs in local administration?
The Minister has considerable functions in relation to what has become one of the most substantial sources of employment by local authorities, that is, road maintenance and road development. Nobody is more anxious than I am to see adequate wages and good conditions given to road workers. I think, however, there is need for severe investigation of the rate of progress and the type of work that is being done on road maintenance generally. I wonder whether some new method of control of road maintenance and some progressive policy for dealing rotationally with main roads might not be more effective. I wonder if the provision of plant, machinery and various other types of equipment necessary for road maintenance might not be better if carried out by a central authority on a planned basis rather than have—as we have experienced—parts of roads repaired at one period and then, after a long period, the completion of work on other parts of the road.
One of the main reasons forincreased rates is the increased cost of road maintenance, through county councils. We have had the impact of the increased cost of the maintenance of certain types of institutions which are maintained, or contributed to in their maintenance, by the local authority. The Minister nonchalantly disregarded the impact that the removal of certain food subsidies would have on those institutions and its ultimate reflection in increased rates. A dual personality seems to be arising in the central Department of Local Government and the local department as well—all adding up, as I have described it, to the incidence of administrative costs. It is doubtful whether all this duplication is necessary.
I wonder if anybody can rationally justify, let us say, the employment of dual sets of highly technical professionally qualified people in both Departments. Investigations of site, examinations of plan, and so forth, are carried out by highly skilled and competent people in the local authority. That work is carried out by persons of high architectural or engineering standing and then it is sent forward again for review and re-examination by another bunch of architects or engineers. The matter goes backwards and forwards between the various sets of equally qualified persons and very often all that are involved are minor and non-consequential issues. Is all this duality of purpose necessary? Does the Minister or his Department ever consider the possibility of reducing this particular type of duality?
We have had discussions from time to time in this House on the inordinate surcharge on many schemes created by virtue of engineers' and architects' fees. To me, it seems rather futile when one considers the immense duality of functions of people of professional, engineering and architectural standing advising the local authority and people who are attached to the Department of Local Government. I wonder whether many of the functions carried out by both authorities could not be merged in a practical and a more efficient way for the general improvement of the expedition,if nothing else, of certain plans and projects.
There seems to exist in the mind of the Department of Local Government a necessity for a counter-departmental check, in a detailed administrative way as distinct from a general functionary way, involving, in my opinion, the creation of an immense amount of administrative work that leads to further delays and further complications in getting the job done. It is difficult, unless one wants to get down very much to the urban council or local county council area, to make any impression upon the problem. Whether it is a consequence of the development of the managerial system or not, the cost of local administration has been constantly and ever upward since the putting into effect of this system. Even though there may have been much criticism of certain activities under the old régime, it is as nothing compared with the ever-increasing amount of complaint by people generally against rising local authority costs.
People feel now, rightly or wrongly, that they are suffering tax extortion by the central Exchequer, and, in addition, the blister of the increasing impact of local rates. We saw the Minister become the effective tool for the Minister for Finance when that Minister found that budgeting had become difficult and the raising of money a problem and had the Minister for Local Government introduce his amendment of certain provisions relating to motor taxation which allowed him to grab a further £800,000 to £1,000,000 from the people. The people are justifiably asking where all this is going to stop and what device will next be used to make the Department the instrument for the extraction of more money.
That is where I get into difficulties of a serious nature with regard to this duality of purpose. The problem can be epitomised in this way: whether it is wiser to have rate collectors around the country collecting rates on a warrant, or whether it is more practical to have the collection of rates carried out by the central office in a central way. Whether the problem is capable of a ready solution or not, I do not know,but it does indicate the difficulties that exist in the mind of the general public in relation to the functions of local authorities. There seems to be somebody in the central authority doing a whole lot of things and he seems to have some kind of counterpart in the local authority doing the same things. Glancing through the Estimate for the Department, the Minister will see the extraordinary amount of money devoted to what one might describe as purely administrative cost.
This debate has been rather long-drawn-out, and I do not intend to dwell on many of the minor difficulties, but I want to say that under the Minister's administration there is one thing definite and incontrovertible: whether the Minister protests as vehemently as the Minister for Finance protests that there is no slowing up in housing, there is, in fact, a tremendous slowing up in housing and tremendous unemployment arising in the building trade. I do not care whether the Minister says, or tries to say, that there is no slowing up in local authority housing. The fact remains that, with increased interest charges in relation to the Small Dwellings (Acquisition) Act, there is a decided falling-off in that type of building, and, on the figures of unemployment given repeatedly by the Central Statistics Office, it is quite obvious that, no matter what may be the reason, there is a substantial fall in the level of employment being given by housing and, in addition, there is the fact that the Minister by his axe in relation to the Local Authorities (Works) Act, has succeeded in creating substantial rural unemployment, particularly in the lacuna period which that Act was designed to counter. It may be that spite or any other motive, political or otherwise, inspires it, but there is no doubt that the reduction in the moneys allocated under that Act is creating difficulties and trouble in isolated rural areas, a solution of which the people in these areas can find only in the emigrant ship. Apparently, the Government have no real conception of the seriousness of that situation and no desire to arrest the haemorrhage.
There are repeated and constantwarnings from all directions that people are groaning under the burden of rates and I feel that the Minister— possibly in anticipation of the discussion which I hope we will have before Christmas on the question of rate collection—should find some way of spreading the load over a period, either by way of monthly or even quarterly payments, so that it will not be felt as severely as it is being felt at present. Whatever has happened the last couple of years of this country's economic life have been difficult. I might say for political reasons that it is due to the dead hand of Fianna Fáil being back again on the helm of government. That may be a very large contributing factor but no matter how enthusiastic one may be or how blind one may be in his allegiance to a political Party, there is no doubt that money is infinitely scarcer to-day and people are infinitely more hard-pressed to meet their normal obligations than has been the case for a considerable number of years.
That puts us in the fix that we must face up to the responsibility of finding the root cause of the constantly increasing burden and find a remedy for it. I say that a good deal of it can be alleviated by effective work by the machinery of the Department, which will have to start by getting a proper segregation of duties as between the local authority and its staff and the Department and its staff. There is no doubt at all in my mind that in that particular field of endeavour there is a very fruitful source of future saving for the ratepayers.
The Minister for Local Government may wash his hands in his own inimitable way of constructive criticism in this House but there is no doubt that in many parts of Ireland—and I would say in many parts of his own constituency—the substantial reduction in expenditure under the Local Authorities (Works) Act is being drastically reflected in rising rural unemployment. He will find I am sure in many parts of his constituency what I have found throughout my constituency—increased unemployment in the Christmas period,with no effective contribution being made to alleviate the consequent distress. The Minister said nonchalantly to-day that he was going to ask the Parliamentary Secretary in charge of the Board of Works to do something about the problem in Kildare. It seems rather futile, indeed one might say rather charlatan-like, for a Minister who has deliberately slashed the amount of money available for the type of works best suited to meet the situation to ask the Parliamentary Secretary now to see if he could do something by way of a special scheme to alleviate distress. It is time that we got down to the job of endeavouring to do the best we can for the ordinary people of this country, as distinct from trying to adhere to Party viewpoints or to Party allegiance in matters of national distress. I say to the Minister that we will not in any way impede him if he wishes, for the purpose of meeting the present circumstances, to introduce a Supplementary Estimate to finance schemes under the Local Authorities (Works) Act, to alleviate hardship generally over the period of the next couple of months. It is an unfortunate circumstance that we have to discuss the Estimate at this stage of the financial year with the pitiful knowledge that is at hand of the economic distress and unemployment that exist throughout widespread rural areas. As was remarked here to-day, at the best of times people have to stretch their resources in many cases, to deny themselves much in order to exist on the normal pay packet coming into many homes to-day and it is a poor tribute to this Dáil that we find that distress increased in many homes in rural Ireland by a tremendous increase in unemployment at the Christmas period.
I said when speaking on the motion of confidence here some time ago that we were rapidly getting back in this country to the miserable outlook of the famine period when the only employment that could be found for our people was Government relief schemes. By implementing schemes under the Local Authorities (Works) Act we were getting away from the taint of the local relief scheme and, instead of that, we were starting to operate localbenefit schemes where the work was of such a nature as to ensure national progress in an overall plan and to ensure improvements of various kinds for local people whether by way of drainage of stopped rivers, the clearance of gully traps, the removal of surface water off roadways, or in improvements in the means of access to various rural properties. It was, in the general picture, of some national value, but to-day we had the Minister's sorry conception of dealing with a problem that might arise by wanting to transfer it to the Board of Works to see if they could do anything about it.
It may well be that the fault may not lie with the Minister. Indeed, I prefaced my remarks by saying that I do not think it does. It may be that, in the Shakespearian phrase, the fault lies "not in his stars but in his times," but there is no doubt that the Irish people generally irrespective of political allegiance are becoming agitated about the increasing spiral of local taxation. The economic outlook of this Government does not seem to hold any hope of a cessation in that trend because each particular Act for which they are responsible in their tax extortion rampage puts the local authorities in the position that they have to try to meet the impact of this extortion by increases of all sorts in the remuneration of the various employees under their control. The time has come for somebody to tackle the unpleasant task of asking where it is all going to end. I do not wish to deny to the employee of any local body the right to get some compensation by way of increased wages to meet the impact of increased costs of tea, bread, sugar and other essentials for his home, but we have reached a stage under this Government, and under the present system of local administration, where we are adding to the central Exchequer extortion of taxes the subterfuge and camouflage of various types of local extortion. Whether they pass under the name of rates or taxes, increases in fees for driving licences, increases in motor taxation, increases in the cost of various ancillary commodities used in plant or transport, all amount to the same thing in that theyare a direct or indirect tax on the people of the country generally.
It is time that the insistent demands of people were listened to and an investigation started as to what is the best method of controlling road maintenance throughout the country. We have a central road fund upon which the Minister was trenchant in his views, one over which he was going to sit like a bull terrier protecting to the last shilling all the money that went into it to see that it would go out for road purposes. That is a very worthy ambition. I think we will have to go further, taking into consideration the overall situation with regard to road maintenance, the cost of roads and the cost of various specialists in relation to road construction, particularly the suspension of roadways over bog land. We will have to consider the whole problem as a general national one and to see whether it would be practicable to transfer that type of charge from the local authorities to the central authority. We have to face the fact that there is growing local unrest at the profligate cost, particularly the profligate administrative cost of running local authorities.
My contribution to this Estimate is rather one of inquiry into the general principles behind the development of local government and the segregation of functions as between local authorities and the Department. If I stress that point of view I do so because I intervened in this debate, not on the basis of my local problems, which are many and varied, but to try to direct the Minister's and the House's attention to the fact that there is a necessity for a general overhaul of our whole concept of local government. There is a dire necessity for the cutting down of the duality of purposes of the local authorities and the Department and for cutting down in a reasonable and practical way the overlapping services both in the central Department and the local authorities and, added to that, there is a necessity for the Department to investigate the practicability of making certain charges now levied on local authorities a central charge collected in a different way from the present collection methods.
This has become a problem which is eating into the confidence of many people in this State. It is becoming a very wearisome burden, particularly on the small-salaried and much-despised white collar worker. Apart from the specific and general problems which may be referred to in this debate, I would impress on the Minister that the time has come for a complete overhaul of the perspective of the Department in regard to the local authorities, for a definition of functions, and for the removal of many of the overlapping functions as between the two, thereby bringing about a saving not only for the taxpayer but, in many instances, a saving of substantial sums of money for the local ratepayers.
I believe that in this country we have become too prone to allowing large, cumbersome and expensive machines to grow up centrally and locally without getting down to the task of making people do work of a more directly productive nature. I think that in this field of local authority and local government administration there is room for a tremendous advance, an advance that can be made by reasonable investigation and sensible planning to integrate the departments for the purpose of doing away with overlapping and delay.
