asked the Minister for Finance if he will give particulars of the allocation of the additional £150,000 which is being made available for the purposes of the Special Employment Schemes Office indicating, if possible, the areas which will benefit by such allocations.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Special Employment Schemes Allocation.
The sum of £150,000 made available for the purposes of the Special Employment Schemes Office has been allocated as to £100,000 for urban employment schemes and as to £50,000 for works providing employment in rural areas.
The provision of £100,000 for urban areas has been allocated as follows:— £50,000 to the Dublin County Borough, £10,000 to the Cork County Borough, £4,800 to the Limerick County Borough, £2,700 to the Waterford County Borough and £32,500 among the 56 other urban areas. As the Deputy is no doubt aware these sums are additional to the allocations already available this year to these areas. The total moneys available from public funds in this financial year for employment schemes in urban areas is included in the reply to a question by Deputy Donegan which appears on to-day's Order Paper.
The detailed allocation of £50,000 for works providing employment in rural areas has not yet been determined, but I expect that decisions on this matter will be reached in the course of the next few days.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that, notwithstanding the fact that £150,000 extra has been voted for special employment schemes, the overall cut this year compared with last year in the total amount of winter relief scheme grants is approximately 50 per cent.?
If the Deputy looks at the answers to to-day's Questions regarding the availability of money, he will find the situation is not as he suggests.
The Parliamentary Secretary mentioned Limerick. I would like to point out that in Limerick last year we were given £20,000 for winter relief scheme grants. This year it was intimated to us that we were getting £6,500, subject to a local contribution. Now we are getting £4,800—
What is the Deputy's supplementary question?
My question is: Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that the Special Employments Scheme Grant is still 50 per cent. less than last year?
The Deputy seems to be giving information, instead of looking for it.
It is on this side of the House he should be.
We will be over there very shortly.