Arising out of certain remarks made by the Minister here last week concerning the National Development Fund, and remarks made elsewhere by the Attorney-General and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Government, I think it would be well if the intentions of the Government in relation to this fund were clarified. Is it proposed to operate the fund and, if so, for what purpose? There were suggestions made by Deputies sitting opposite that the fund might be wound up. There was certainly a suggestion that it was not intended that the fund should be used for the purposes indicated in the Act under which it was established. The fact that these suggestions were made indicates that the Government has intentions in relation to the fund contrary to those of the previous Government when the fund was established. I want, primarily, to deal with the remark that was made by the Minister on the Second Stage of the Finance Bill. He said then—I am quoting from column 688 of the Dáil Debates of the 24th June last:—
"I took the precaution, however, at a very early date of ascertaining what some of the proposals were that were pending at the time that we came into Government for the purposes of allocation from this National Development Fund."
And then, as Deputies will remember, he proceeded to read out a list of various construction projects which, apparently, had been submitted, or brought forward by the Department of Justice and the Department of Education. To clarify that position, and to get on the record the facts, I asked the Minister a number of questions. I think it is well and proper that I should state now what precisely the position was at the date on which the Government changed.
Up to the 31st May last, projects, the total cost of which would amount to £6,500,000, had been approved of by the previous Government for financing from the National Development Fund. None of the proposals read out here by the Minister on the 24th June was included amongst those which had been approved. I doubt if any Deputy will find fault with the list of approved projects on the ground that they involved undesirable expenditure or were in any way unconstructive.
These projects included a first allocation of £1,000,000 to the Road Fund, followed by a further allocation of £1,900,000 for the present financial year to the Road Fund, including £400,000 for Gaeltacht roads. There was also, in respect of the previous financial year, an allocation of £100,000 for the Works Act programme. The total money allocated for expenditure through the Department of Local Government from the National Development Fund was £3,000,000.
There were two allocations, one of £500,000 and one of £400,000 in respect of the financial year 1953-54 and the year 1954-55, to the Special Employment Schemes Office for the extension of the activities of that office, and for works which are classified as special employment schemes. A sum of £250,000 was made available for schemes in the Gaeltacht. It was generally understood that the allocation and administration of the money would be undertaken by Oifig na Gaeltachta agus na gCeantar gCúng.
There were allocations, amounting to £1,298,900, for schemes put forward by the Department of Industry and Commerce. These included a grant of £550,000 for improvements to Cork Harbour, a grant of £527,400 for the improvement of Dublin Harbour, £200,000 for the construction of the roads which will be necessary in connection with the four hand-turf power stations to be erected by the E.S.B., and £20,000 for the erection of a bridge over the road at Castlemungret, outside Limerick. There was a dispute between the county council and C.I.E. as to whether there should be a bridge over the road or a level crossing, and the dispute was settled by a grant from the National Development Fund.
There were a number of projects put forward by the Department of Agriculture and approved of by the previous Government. The principal of these was a scheme for the eradication of bovine T.B. in the County Limerick for which £600,000 was allocated. There were a number of other schemes which I need not detail, but I want to make it clear that these were the only schemes approved of by the previous Government for financing out of the National Development Fund at the time the change of Government took place.
There were two other proposals which had been put forward by the Department of Agriculture which had been approved of by the inter-departmental Committee that considers these proposals in the first instance and which were awaiting the approval of the Minister for Finance. The Department had put forward a scheme for poultry development in Connemara estimated to cost £30,000, and a scheme for buildings and equipment of schools and farms, for the Department of Agriculture, estimated to cost £280,000.
The position with regard to the proposals read out by the Minister was not such that they could be fairly described as pending at the time the change of Government took place. It was explained to this House when the National Development Fund Bill was under discussion here on Second Reading, that the procedure adopted was to ask every Department to bring forward for consideration every proposal which was on the stocks, either proposals which had been turned down as being inappropriate in the past because of the expenditure involved or proposals which were not likely to be brought forward in the immediate future in the normal course of departmental administration. There was, of course, no assurance given to any Department that any proposal it submitted would be approved of for financing out of the Fund, but the aim was to secure a tabulation of all proposals which the Department thought useful on any ground, and these proposals were due to be vetted, in the first instance, by the Inter-departmental Committee which had been established, and secondly by the Minister for Finance.
The position with regard to every one of the proposals which the Minister read out here on the 24th June is that they had not been submitted for detailed examination even by the National Fund Development Inter-departmental Committee. No recommendation had been made by the Inter-departmental Committee to the Minister for Finance and certainly no decision to approve of them had been taken on behalf of the previous Government by the Minister for Finance.
There was a question of policy as to whether building operations of the kind listed by the Department of Educ Justice and the Department of Education should be financed from the National Development Fund at all. I think the Minister had to admit, when he was reading through the list that not all the projects on it were undesirable for financing at the present time. Some of them might in fact be fairly describable as urgent. I personally although a member of the previous Government had not heard of any of these proposals nor would I have heard of them unless they had been approved of after detailed examination by the National Development Fund Inter-departmental Committee. What the merits of the proposals for certain reconstruction works at the Military Barracks at the Curragh were I cannot say. There was, however, one proposal listed by the Minister, namely, to spend a sum of money on an extension of the facilities here at Leinster House. The Minister may not be aware of the fact that only to-day the Committee on Procedure and Privileges were discussing the inadequacy of the facilities available to the Government and to Government Deputies here at Leinster House. May I make this quite clear, straight away, that they are not going to solve their problem by taking any of the very meagre facilities at present available to the Opposition Party. If that was their idea it is an idea that will not work, and if additional facilities have to be provided, then this proposal, in whole or in part, will have to be considered by the Government in due course.
With regard to the construction of a new headquarters for the Garda Síochána, I think Deputies ought to know that the Garda headquarters at Kilmainham had to be vacated because the buildings were declared to be unsound, and something has to be done about them. You could not ask the Garda headquarters to operate in a building which the architect says is unsafe and whether the work is done now or in the future it cannot be postponed indefinitely. I presume that the reconstruction of Garda barracks in the country is not going to be stopped. The implication of the Minister's apparent condemnation of the proposed expenditure on new Garda barracks would suggest that curtailment of activities in that regard is intended. I think it is desirable that there should not be that curtailment because there are many cases where Gardai are operating from very unsuitable barracks, and places where new barracks are required.
There is also a problem with which the previous Government was concerned and that was the difficulty of finding residences for Gardaí in certain areas. We came to the conclusion that there is no way of solving that problem except by building—in certain districts—houses to be occupied by Gardaí and their families. The transfer of Gardaí from one district to another in accordance with the normal administration of that force is often rendered impossible by reason of the inability of the Gardaí to find housing accommodation in the districts to which they were transferred. It has been frequently referred to by the Garda representative body—the real difficulty of members of the force in getting housing accommodation. In the long run, I think it will be found that in a number of districts houses will have to be built for occupation by the Gardaí and in which Gardaí on transfer to new districts can be accommodated.
I hope that the decision to establish an historical museum in Kilmainham jail will not be scotched. That building is there. It is falling into disrepair and becoming an eyesore for want of upkeep. It has considerable historical associations, and it is an appropriate place for such a museum. That there should be such a museum will, I think, be accepted by most Deputies. At the present time there is completely inadequate accommodation for the many historical objects and souvenirs which should be on display. If the Minister has any doubts about that I am sure he can on inquiry find out how completely overcrowded the existing National Museum is. There are priceless treasures stored in crates and vaults there that cannot be put on display anywhere. The pressure on the National Muaseum could be greatly relieved if this project for an historical museum in Kilmainham jail is allowed to proceed. The advantage of having additional attractions of that kind in Dublin from the point of view of the tourist trade is also worth bearing in mind.
There has been very substantial pressure on the Government for the provision of additional accommodation for the National Gallery in Dublin and for many of the other works listed on that list. I would agree fully that these are works which cannot be classified as urgent, and if there is better use to be made of the national resources now—that is very good—but I want, however, to urge strongly on the Government that on many occasions in the past it was proposed that there should always be available a pool of public works ready planned which could be drawn upon if depression in the building trade or other economic circumstances made it desirable to do so. One of the aims of the previous Government was to ensure that such a pool of works would be there.
The mere fact that steps were taken to prepare plans for different projects did not mean that these plans were to be implemented this year or next year. The difficulty in the past in taking steps to relieve depression in the building and other trades was always the time involved in preparing plans to that end. If there is any possibility of deterioration in conditions in the building trade in the future and if that is to be relieved by measures taken by the Government, these measures have to be planned now, and if the steps which were initiated to ensure that they would be planned now are stopped, then the Government may find itself in very real difficulty some time from which there will be no escape.
We are all conscious of the fact that the drive to rehouse our people is coming to an end in many districts with the completion of building programmes. That is not so in Dublin, in Limerick, or in Cork, but in many of the counties and county towns of Ireland the original 1947 housing programme has already been completed and in many other counties and areas the completion of that programme is in sight. It may be that we could raise our standards of accommodation and thereby create more work in the building field but we have got to recognise the fact that the resources of men, equipment and organisation-ability which were in the past absorbed by the building programmes will not be required for that programme in many parts of the country and must be turned to other useful activities of the kind listed in that programme if there is not to be a serious problem of employment dislocation in many districts.
One of the advantages of setting up the National Development Fund was that it ensured that money would be available for works and schemes that were worth going ahead with now and at the same time that other works and schemes would be prepared and brought to the point at which they could be considered for approval at a later stage if economic circumstances warranted it. The particular point I want to make is that, so far as the record of the previous Government was concerned, the measures of which we approved were those on the list that I gave to the House——
