asked the Minister for Lands if he will allocate Fíor-Ghaeltacht water grants to Mr. Dan McGettigan, Glenvar, and Mr. Anton McCloskey, Meentaugh, Glenvar, County Donegal, in respect of the installation of water supplies in their dwellings.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Fior-Ghaeltacht Water Grants.
I regret I am unable, for reasons already conveyed to the applicants in question, to sanction a grant in either of these cases.
Would the Minister indicate what the necessary requirements are in order to qualify for such a grant?
One of the applicants did not qualify at all because, under the Housing Acts, we can make a grant available only where the applicant installs a completely new system and not merely replaces an old one. That applied to one of the applicants in this case. The other applicant was told clearly that he must have a rainwater tank of a certain capacity; the capacity was stated to him and he insisted on putting up a tank only one-tenth of the requisite size.
Further arising out of that reply, is the Minister aware that in the first instance one of the applicants concerned was told that he was not getting a grant because his house did not qualify as an Irish-speaking household; and it was only lately the other ruse was used to do him out of the grant, namely, stating that he was not doing a new job but merely replacing something already there? If "replacing" means the replacement of a completely worn-out pipe, I do not know what would constitute "completely new".
That is the statutory condition. It was not a ruse, as the Deputy has chosen to describe it.
It was nothing else.
The particular section of the statute that binds the Minister in that case is not a ruse. The man is out according to statute.