asked the Minister for Local Government if he will reconsider his decision to refuse a grant for the purpose of repairing the southern ramparts of the Castletown river in Dundalk.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Castletown River (Dundalk) Ramparts.
There are at present no funds available to me from which a grant towards the work referred to could be made. The provision in the Department's Estimate for such schemes for the financial year 1958-59 is for the purpose of discharging balances due in respect of schemes carried out under the Local Authorities (Works) Act in previous years.
Is the Minister aware that houses adjoining this river are in danger of being undermined eventually and that asking the riparian owners to undertake the burden of repairing this bank would be unreasonable? Would the Minister not be prepared to review the matter and make an exception in this case?
At an earlier stage when this matter was examined from the point of view of the housing section of the Department, it was not considered that the flooding then being caused was any danger to the houses in the area. Subsequent to that, a sum of about £1,300 was spent on this job and, a short time after the job had been done, unusually heavy tides did damage to the repairs that had been carried out. As far as I can gather from the reports I have it would appear that this damage done to work carried out a couple of years ago is responsible for the situation that has now arisen and it would also appear that it would come under the heading of maintenance of work that had been done by means of a grant under this Act. If that is the case the local authority would be well advised to examine the position and note the urgency of the matter in the event of no Government assistance being available.