This year I have only the one Vote to present to the House, that for Public Works and Buildings. The Estimate exceeds £9 million for the first time and is more than £900,000 higher than last year's.
As Deputies know, the Special Employment Schemes Office ceased to exist as a separate entity on 31st March, 1967.
The first three subheads cover the administrative expenses of the Office of Public Works and I have no special comment to make unless any Deputy wants further information.
Subhead D provides the funds for acquisition of sites for new Garda stations and other public buildings. It includes provision this year for the purchase of about 57 acres on the northern side of the Hill of Tara. The purpose is to secure full State control and ensure easier access to the whole of this famous national monument.
Before I pass to Subhead E, I think I might digress and report to the Dáil on the work of the Office of Public Works in the past ten years. Planning for the future need not dispense us from the duty of giving an account of our stewardship in the past and a period of a decade is a suitable one to review on an occasion like this. I have been invited by one distinguished Deputy to tell the story of the Board of Works and perhaps this instalment will help to give a composite picture of activities that sometimes appear to be of relatively small importance.
One hears betimes references to the dilatory methods of the Board of Works in what are expected to be serious commentaries on current affairs addressed to the general public, although I must express my gratitude for the many appreciative letters and comments which have reached us, sometimes from unexpected quarters. With some verifiable facts before them, Deputies and the public will be able to see better the true position.
The activities of my Office fall into a few main categories. The architectural and engineering services are the major ones. The national monuments service is the largest and best know of a number of other lesser activities.
In the ten years to 31st March, 1967, £30 million has been spent by the Board of Works on architectural works. This included £2 million for furniture for new buildings. The bulk of the £30 million was spent on primary schools. They absorbed more than £19 million. There is evidence that they would have cost a great deal more for no greater output were it not for the efficient organisation we have built up to deal with the design, contractual arrangements and the supervision of the construction of these schools. The balance, £11 million, was spent principally on building works for the Departments of Justice, Finance, Agriculture and Fisheries, and Posts and Telegraphs. These are the chief Departments but there is no Department which has not been served.
The Office of Public Works has no reason to be ashamed of its record in school building. The total number of primary schools is 4,600. In the ten years with which I am dealing, 842 primary schools were built. That gives an average of three new schools every fortnight. That is not all: in addition, 552 other schools were extended or improved. In other words, nearly one in every three schools standing today was either built or modernised since 1957. Expenditure averaged almost £2,000,000 a year; the total was £19,200,000.
These statistics might be supplemented by an indication of what has been accomplished in a couple of counties. Donegal and Waterford are at opposite ends of the country and are dissimilar in many ways. There are about 90 national schools in Waterford; Donegal, with a more widely scattered population has more than 300, the majority having comparatively small enrolments. In the ten years, 51 Donegal schools were replaced and 42 were substantially improved. In Waterford, 22 new schools were built and 18 improved or enlarged. Modern conditions for almost 12,000 pupils, more than a third of the total, were provided in the two counties. These figures relate only to permanent pupil places. Many other pupils have been accommodated in the fine prefabricated classrooms which were provided rapidly to meet urgent needs.
Other counties show similar results. In Cavan, 31 schools were replaced or improved; in Roscommon, the total was 58; in Tipperary, 81.
Our small research section has managed to achieve radical improvements in the design of schools and of school furniture. The modern classroom is a self-contained unit; each has independent toilet and cloakroom and direct access from outside. No class interrupts another on its way in or out. It is centrally heated, insulated and sound-proofed and colourfully decorated. The furniture consists of light tables and chairs which can readily be stacked or re-arranged to permit more freedom and variety of activity.
A fine example of the latest school design is St. Paul's Infants' School at Athlone. It has ten classrooms with an assembly hall, a library and teachers' rooms. Everything possible has been done in the planning and construction of this school to make the introduction to school-life attractive and comfortable for the 400 infant pupils. The rooms are bright, airy and gaily-coloured. The assembly hall has been planned with no fixed stage; instead there are moveable timber units which can be assembled into any required position so that the hall can be used for diverse purposes. Drill displays, choral practice, concerts and other activities requiring a stage can all be held there, suitably arranged. The attractive playground equipment must appeal to the pupils. They have among other things a climbing frame, and imaginative use has been made of concrete to form tunnels and giant mushrooms. So much for schools.
Works of a capital nature for the Department of Justice cost £3 million in the ten year period. A planned programme of Garda station building was initiated, 63 new Garda stations were built and 20 others were greatly improved, the majority in the second half of the decade. The new Divisional Headquarters at Crumlin is one of the biggest Garda stations in the country— it cost about £59,000.
For the Department of Finance, which I need not remind Deputies includes the Revenue Commissioners, a variety of works was completed at a cost of £1.8 million. Substantial new Government offices have been built at Tralee and Wexford; the Cross Block at Dublin Castle has been completely rebuilt and faithfully reproduced; the central heating station which heats this House has been completely renewed enabling turf to replace coal; major improvements to the mail boat pier at Dún Laoghaire have been carried out and the temporary car ferry terminal was built there strictly on time. The collaboration of our architects and engineers in this project seems to have given a result which reassured those who had misgivings about the aesthetic aspects of the project. I am told there will be protests when the traffic moves away from the temporary terminal, which has become a tourist amenity, to the permanent terminal now being rapidly brought to completion.
A sum of £1.3 million was expended on buildings for the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. Many of the works carried out were of the first importance and Deputies may already be familiar with some of them which were extensively covered in issues of "Oibre", our occasional public relations journal. I will mention a few.
Two important new agricultural colleges were erected, at Athenry and Clonakilty, at a cost of £220,000. A pig progeny testing station was completed at the Munster Institute in Cork. At Abbotstown, County Dublin, a research unit was erected for research and experiment in the field of artificial insemination. At Abbotstown, too, a new veterinary field station and a foundation stock farm have been built. Residences were provided there for the Director of the Veterinary Research Laboratory and for the farm manager. An experimental animals farm yard with accommodation for animals is now going up.
A soil survey and testing laboratory was completed at Johnstown Castle, County Wexford, now administered by An Foras Talúntais. New buildings and a laboratory were provided at Backweston Farm, County Kildare, for developing and propagating new strains of cereals and root crops.
Extensive alterations and additions have been made to the Veterinary College, Ballsbridge, Dublin. Among a number of other services carried out for the same Department was the setting up of a laboratory and other facilities at Abbotstown for studying fish disease.
Besides the sum of £1.3 million charged against this Vote for services for the Department of Posts and Telegraphs a further £1 million was spent on the erection of 200 new telephone exchanges, including the one at Dame Court, Dublin, which was completed last year and cost £180,000. Nine new post offices were erected and 18 others substantially improved. Nine other new buildings were designed and completed for the Department of Posts and Telegraphs including the Dublin Central Sorting Office at the rear of Connolly Station, recently opened, which cost over £800,000, and district sorting offices and telephone exchanges at Coolock-Raheny and Finglas. I hope I have given a fair picture to Deputies of the architectural achievements and I will now cast a look at the engineering activities of my Office.
The main engineering service is drainage. It would be an easy job to give a lot of facts and figures about drainage without conveying any real picture of the work and problems involved in getting a scheme under way. Firstly, I might say a few words about the work and problems involved in getting a drainage scheme going.
The Arterial Drainage Act, 1945, provides for the carrying out of arterial drainage works on the basis of comprehensive schemes for entire catchment areas. The more important catchments have been classified into 28 major and 30 minor categories.
Before any drainage scheme can be prepared, a detailed engineering and valuation survey of the catchment area is needed. The engineering survey of an average major catchment may involve from three to four years of painstaking detailed work in the catchment. For example, in the Boyne catchment about fifteen hundred miles of rivers. streams and channels had to be investigated in detail. Levels, longitudinal and cross sectional measurements were taken at close intervals throughout the network of watercourses. Almost 5,000 bridges ranging from small field structures to large public road or railway bridges, as well as 150 weirs and 50 water supply intakes, were examined. All farms or other properties on the channel banks were studied in order to see how they might be affected by the scheme.
In a valuation survey, a thorough search of the catchment area is made with a view to ascertaining particulars of all lands capable of improvement by arterial drainage. An estimate is made of the probable increase in land value which will follow drainage works. This is important as the cost of work must bear a reasonable relationship to the benefit it brings. The Boyne valuation survey disclosed that about 112,000 acres of agricultural land and 26,000 acres of bog could be improved by drainage but that the cost of improving about one sixth of the damaged agricultural land would be uneconomic.
The design work on the Boyne involved detailed study of the rainfall, run-off and other hydrometric data collected continuously since 1940; the working out of gradients and cross sections and the solution of problems of water rights and water supplies, sewage disposal systems, bridges, etc.
When a scheme has been prepared and approved by the Commissioners of Public Works requirements of the 1945 Act fall to be complied with. A copy of the scheme must be sent for exhibition to the council of every county affected. Three months must be given to the county councils to submit observations. Only when all observations from the councils and from other interested parties have been considered and necessary amendments made to the scheme following consultation with other Government Departments may the scheme be submitted to the Minister for Finance for confirmation. It must be shown to be economically sound.
I have given this outline of the steps leading up to the actual work stage of a drainage scheme so that Deputies will see why so much time elapses between the decision to survey a catchment and the beginning of the work on the river. The construction works introduce additional problems. Recruiting, organising and supervising a large and scattered labour force of many classes of workers and negotiating with landowners are not the easiest of these problems. I feel I should add here a tribute to the engineers and to the men on the schemes for the fact that there has never been any serious trade dispute resulting in the loss of earnings or disruption of work.
During the past ten years expenditure on construction works totalled £8½ million, surveys cost £200,000 and the purchase and maintenance of plant and machinery cost a little more than £3½ million—about £12 million in all. Two hundred and ninety thousand acres of land and 88,000 acres of bog have benefited from drainage schemes already carried out, and, in addition, 23,000 acres of land have been protected by embankments against flooding. An average of 1,200 men a year has been employed on construction works and 145 on maintenance of completed works. About 100 men are employed in the Central Engineering Workshop in Dublin on the maintenance and overhaul of machinery and plant.
The Office of Public Works is responsible for a wide variety of marine works, ranging from Dún Laoghaire harbour and the two State harbours at Howth and Dunmore East, which are administered, maintained and developed by the Commissioners, to the investigation and improvement of many small slips and landing places along the Atlantic seaboard.
Dún Laoghaire harbour is the main passenger port in the county, handling threequarters of a million passengers annually, largely in the summer months. During the ten years being reviewed, extensive improvements have been carried out. Marine structures over a century old have been completely modernised at a cost of about £400,000; extensive building works, aimed at reducing delays and discomfort for passengers during the peak travel periods, are well advanced; more than £300,000 has been spent to date.
At the other end of the scale the Office of Public Works examine proposals for improvements to relatively small landing places of purely local interest, sponsored by the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and Roinn na Gaeltachta. Some 180 proposals were investigated in detail; of these 65 were found to be technically feasible and justified on economic grounds. More than £200,000 has been spent on works by direct labour on these projects by the Office of Public Works. A number of larger schemes, not warranting the description of major fishery harbours but of more than local utility have also been investigated and works averaging about £30,000 per annum have been executed.
The Office of Public Works act as technical advisers to the Harbours Section of the Department of Transport and Power, examining proposals prepared by consultants and submitted by local harbour authorities, discussing details with those consultants, advising on the placing of contracts and subsequently providing general technical supervision of works in progress,
Responsibility for national monuments was first placed on the Commissioners of Public Works under the Church Disestablishment Act of 1869. In 1880 the ruins of more than 130 churches, other ecclesiastical buildings and structures such as high crosses were vested in them. Later enactments empowered the Commissioners to become either owners or guardians of other national monuments and the number in their care has steadily increased. The Commissioners now care for about 800 monuments, ranging in antiquity during a period of not less than fifty centuries. The year 1969 will mark the first centenary of the transfer to the Commissioners of Public Works of responsibility for the national monuments service and I am considering how this occasion can be suitably marked.
The National Monuments Branch of the Office has an increasing volume of work in the past decade. As it might be tedious to recite details, I shall mention but a few. The large Elizabethan manor-house added in 1565 to the original Ormonde Castle at Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary, dating from 1309, has been put into a sound state of preservation. The floors, roof and windows are retained and the 16th century fireplaces and plasterwork are excellent examples of their kind. The monastic sites at Clonmacnoise and Mellifont have been cleaned up, tidied, and given improved presentation. A popular attraction at Clonmacnoise is the outdoor museum which displays a fine collection of early Christian grave-slabs. Archaeological investigations were carried out at both Clonmacnoise and Mellifont.
The National Monuments Acts assign the duty of preservation rather than the privilege of restoration, to the Commissioners of Public Works. These restrictions have not been considered to prevent the Commissioners from co-operating in a number of important restoration works of national monuments, the expenditure, in excess of what was justified by the needs of preservation, being provided from outside sources.
Bunratty Castle, Co. Clare, a large tower-house dating from 1460, has been fully restored and now plays an important part in the tourist business. The castle houses an important collection of medieval furniture, pictures, tapestries and stained glass. Rothe House, Kilkenny, an Elizabethan merchant's house, has been fully restored and now houses the Museum of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society as well as Bord Fáilte's tourist office. Ballintubber Abbey, County Mayo, celebrated its 750th anniversary in 1966. The occasion will be remembered by Deputies without any prompting from me. The abbey church has been in continuous use since its foundation in 1216 by Cathal O'Connor, King of Connacht. The work of restoration and the extensive archaeological excavation which accompanied it drew widespread public attention and commendation.
The repair of the home of Daniel O'Connell, "The Liberator", at Derrynane, County Kerry, was completed and the house was opened to the public in August last. I am glad of this opportunity to express publicly my appreciation of the public-spirited men who initiated and contributed so much of their money and energies to this project.
In 1965, the second stage of the archaeological survey of Ireland was begun. Work is already well under way in County Louth, a rich archaeological region. It is a fundamental project which will take many years to complete. At least it has been started and it will be continued, without intermission, until it has been completed.
During the ten years I am reviewing, 27 monuments were taken into full State care—13 by means of vesting and 14 by guardianship deeds. The protection of the National Monuments Acts was extended to 137 other monuments; 118 were statutorily listed as monuments and 19 were the subject of preservation orders. Expenditure on works in the ten years was £376,000.
The Office, apart from the work of the National Monuments Branch, has done much to preserve the fabric of some fine old State buildings. Very extensive work has been done at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, which, when the works are finished, will be opened to the public as a showpiece of 17th century architecture and as a folk museum. Defective stonework at the Four Courts and the National Library has been replaced and the life of these and other public buildings has been prolonged.
I shall now return to the proposals for 1967-68. Primary schools as usual get the lion's share of the provision under Subhead E. A sum of £3,000,000 is made available for erection and improvement of schools. Several large central schools are being planned which, as I mentioned last year, will have such amenities as general purpose rooms and fitted kitchens which could not be provided in smaller schools. We continue to erect small schools where the Minister for Education requires them and improve existing schools by installing central heating, electric lighting and modern sanitation.
There are some other interesting items covered by Subhead E. The works at Leinster House are nearly completed. The new kitchen and diningrooms have been handed over and are now in full use. The adaptation of the former restaurant area to provide refreshment rooms and a Press diningroom is in progress.
Work on the reconstruction of the drawingroom block of the State Apartments, Dublin Castle, is well advanced. External work is virtually completed and the services and finishes are now being attended to. The whole is expected to be finished early in 1968.
Work at the Kennedy Memorial Park, County Wexford, is being carried out on behalf of the Forestry Division of the Department of Lands and also for the Department of Agriculture. The administrative building for the Forestry Division is in course of construction and work has begun on the provision of roads and a water supply. The funds for the Department of Lands part of the project are being provided from the Vote for Forestry.
The £300,000 contract for the extension to the National Gallery is progressing satisfactorily. The entire cost is being met from voted moneys and not a penny of the Shaw Bequest Funds will be involved. At the Public Record Office a two-storey addition is being provided for the Land Registry; this is now moving rapidly towards completion.
The statue of Rebert Emmet, which was presented to the nation last year by a group of Irish-Americans, has been erected at St. Stephen's Green West, opposite the house where Emmet lived. A memorial to Roger Casement in Glasnevin Cementery is planned.
Provision is made for commencing work on the new Stamping Branch at Dublin Castle for the Revenue Commissioners. The need for better accommodation for this Branch has long been recognised.
Another project, which it is hoped will be started this year, is the building of a new detention centre at Finglas to replace the present place of detention at Marlboro House, Glasnevin.
A sum of £320,550 is included for architectural projects for the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.
Additional facilities for the vaterinary college are to be provided at Abbotstown farm and the research laboratory there is to be extended. A veterinary laboratory has been erected at Sligo and similar laboratories are proposed for Limerick, Cork, Athlone and Kilkenny, with dairy produce laboratories at Cork and Limerick. Contracts have been placed for the erection of the veterinary laboratory at Limerick and for the laboratories at Cork and tenders have been received for the buildings at Athlone. Avondale House, County Wicklow, is being adapted as a forestry training and conference centre. A new dormitory block is being built near the house. The work is nearing completion.
A further sum of £215,000 is provided for the erection of new Garda Stations and Married Quarters for gardaí and for improvement of existing stations. All the stations will be planned and erected by the Office of Public Works and the married quarters by that Office and by the National Building Agency Ltd.
The extension of the garage and workshop, accommodation at the Garda Depot, Phoenix Park, is now almost completed.
A sum of £190,000 is required for the Department of Posts and Telegraphs. Four large new warehouses are being built at St. John's Road, Dublin, to provide 50,000 square feet of storage space. In addition the scheme will provide 8,000 square feet of office space, a canteen and workshop and a large amount of paved open storage and service roadways. The open storage and three of the warehouses are complete. Other main items are: new post office and engineering headquarters at Carlow and new post offices at Claremorris and Macroom.
The Office of Public Works erects the buildings for this telephone service. Works under this heading will cost this year about £300,000 which will be met from the Telephone Capital Account.
On the engineering side, £280,000 is provided for work on the permanent car ferry terminal at Dún Laoghaire. The new pier is expected to be completed and the erection of buildings commenced this year. The terminal will be in operation for the 1969 tourist season.
£225,000 is required for the continuance of works on the major fishery harbours at Dunmore East, Killybegs, and Castletownbere. The scheme at Dunmore East has progressed satisfactorily and is now more than half completed. Dredging has been completed at Killybegs and works for the provision of berthage facilities at the "Black Rock" site are going ahead well. Dredging has been virtually completed at Castleownbere and some minor works and reclamation carried out. Work on the main quay construction has commenced. Additional legal powers to enable property difficulties here and at other sites to be solved are being sought by the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries.
The provision for "Works of Economic Development" includes expenditure on harbour improvement schemes at Kilmore Quay, County Wexford, Skerries, County Dublin and Reen, County Cork and some dredging at Howth Harbour.
The F Subheads provide for the cost of the upkeep of State premises and property and for rents where payable.
Subhead F. 1 covers the maintenance of public properties including as well as some 2,400 buildings in Ireland, embassies abroad, four parks and the three State harbours. The total provision is £1,100,000.
There are about 400 public buildings in Dublin, such as Dublin Castle, GPO, Four Courts, Custom House, Government Buildings, Iveagh House, and 2,000 others throughout the country. They include 700 garda stations, 300 primary schools maintained by the Commissioners, 150 post offices, and such buildings as agricultural colleges and schools, meteorological stations, and employment exchanges.
A central building maintenance workshop was set up in 1964 as a step towards the reorganisation of the labour force of 400 employed on maintenance in the Dublin area. Over 300 of these workmen are at present employed through contractors. Whether that arrangement is now outmoded and should be replaced by direct employment is at present being considered.
There are four parks under the control of the Commissioners—the Phoenix Park and St. Stephen's Green, Dublin, the Bourn Vincent Memorial Park, Killarney, County Kerry, and Garnish Island near Glengariff, County Cork.
Plans for the further development of the Bourn Vincent Memorial Park are being prepared. I take the opportunity of commending the initiative of the committee which has set up and is extending a folk museum scheme in Muckross House in the Park.
Much urban development has occurred around the Phoenix Park and more is in sight. These developments are bound to have some effect on the park and arrangements have been made to consult with the city and county planning authority on short- and longterm requirements. Car-parking facilities are being provided for the ever growing number of motorists visiting the park during the summer months.
In St. Stephen's Green, a plot has been ploughed, levelled and resown and portion of it set aside for golf "putting" courses. Some playground facilities have been provided for children. The mound site of the former plant houses on the west side has been developed and has been assigned to the memorial to W.B. Yeats, presented by a memorial committee. Five hundred rose bushes, a gift from the Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, Portland, Oregon, United States of America, were planted in early spring this year.
The gardens at Garnish Island are widely known and never fail to attract admiration. During the year ended 31st March, 1967, there were 47,000 visitors.
In passing, I might add that the Shannon Navigation, which is maintained by the Commissioners, is becoming increasingly popular with tourists for boating and pleasure cruises. Formerly the tolls were almost entirely collected from commercial users. They have disappeared and the Shannon is mainly used now for recreational purposes. I am glad to say that since 1961 the tolls have more than trebled.
Subhead F.3—Rents, Rates, etc.— shows a substantial increase for 1967-68. The increase is again attributable, in the main, to the need to rent office accommodation in Dublin for the staffs of Government Departments. As I explained, when introducing the Estimate last year, many State servants have been, and many still are, working in unhealthy and congested conditions in sub-standard buildings which were never designed for use as offices; some Departments were and even still some are dispersed in numbers of different buildings. The capital that the State would have to find for the provision of its own buildings is required for other vital services. To alleviate the accommodation problem for staffs it has been necessary to extend the renting of space in office blocks constructed by private enterprise. Space has been rented in the new office block at 72-76 St. Stephen's Green for the staff of the Department of Justice together with certain Branches of the Department of Finance including the Paymaster General's Office and the Estate Duty Office and also for the headquarters staff of the Comptroller and Auditor General.
The next group of subheads is the G group which deal with arterial drainage about which I have spoken generally already.
The provision for G.1—Surveys shows a significant increase this year from £22,000 to £50,000. This increase, I am glad to say, is to enable the detailed survey of the Shannon catchment to be resumed. It was intended to commence the survey in 1965 but owing to the financial stringency which then arose, the Shannon survey like other desirable undertakings had to be postponed. As I have said before, it was the Government's intention that the investigation should be resumed as soon as circumstances would permit. The provision now made is an earnest of that intention and I hope to make further provision in subsequent years. This is the beginning of an enormous undertaking, one of the biggest single engineering projects ever undertaken in this country, and it will severely tax the resources of the State to see it through.
I said when introducing last year's Estimate that no new intermediate or embankment schemes would be surveyed for the present so that resources could be concentrated on the major and minor listed catchments. The immediate result was an acceleration in the preparation of the Boyne and Maigue.
The Boyne scheme will be on exhibition shortly and I hope the Maigue will follow soon. As the preparatory work on these schemes finishes, technical and other staff will be freed to accelerate the other schemes in preparation, namely, the Corrib-Mask, the Erne, the Suir, the Mulkear, the Boyle, the Owenmore, the Bonet, the Dunkellin and the Lavally. A scheme for a small border river, the Kilcoe, County Leitrim, has been prepared in consultation with the Northern Authorities and will be on exhibition shortly. The joint survey of another border river, the Finn (Counties Cavan and Monaghan) which commenced in 1966, was continued this year.
The provision for G.2—Construction Works, although £70,000 higher than last year, is in effect the same, as the increase is only just sufficient to provide for the last round of wages increases.
Works are in progress this year on four major schemes, the Inny, the Moy, the Deel and the Corrib-Headford, and on one minor scheme, the Killimor-Coppagh. The Corrib-Headford scheme has just begun. It will take about four years to complete and will give employment to 200 men at the peak of the works. It will benefit about 14,000 acres of land. The Moy has still three or four years to run but the Inny, Deel and Killimor-Cappagh are much further advanced. Work on them will begin to taper off towards the end of this year or early next year. By then work on the Boyne and, I hope, the Maigue will have started.
The provision for Embankments is not very different from last year's. Work continues at the Shannon and at Blanket Nook, County Donegal. The latter will be completed this year. The Shannon embankments are being dealt with in sections. Three have been completed and another, the Maigue section, will be completed this year. Work has started on a further section stretching from Ringmoylan to Foynes; this will cost about £135,000 for the protection of about 1,300 acres of land. It ought to be finished within two years.
The additional minor schemes provision shows a small increase on last year. Two schemes, the Abbey in County Donegal and the Brickley in County Waterford, which were started in 1964 and 1965 respectively, will finish and work on the Cloonburn, County Donegal, which commenced last March, will be continued. Another small scheme, the Knockcroghery, County Roscommon, has commenced. Eight other minor schemes are at various stages; some have been held up by the restriction of capital. One of these small schemes, for the Burnfoot and Skeoge Rivers in County Donegal, has been on exhibition; it is of unusual interest inasmuch as it will relieve conditions on the other side of the Border in the vicinity of Derry city.
The provision for maintenance of completed drainage schemes under G.5 has increased from £150,000 to £179,000. This Subhead will continue to grow as schemes are completed. This year it provided for the maintenance of 21 schemes. I can assure Deputies that the expenditure is kept at reasonable levels.
Before I leave the subject of arterial drainage, I would like to make a few general remarks. Since I became Parliamentary Secretary, I have received each year deputations and representations from many areas in the country. Each deputation made a good substantial cases for its own proposals. To my regret I cannot meet all these requests as soon as I would have liked and I have had to explain that arterial drainage works can be undertaken only in accordance with the established priority lists. They were drawn up following the passing of the Arterial Drainage Act, 1945, and have been accepted and upheld by all Parties and Governments. The completion of the arterial drainage programme will take many years and many areas of the country, including my own, may have to wait longer than they might wish before the benefits of arterial drainage reach them.
The £5,000 in Subhead I is required to meet the cost of maintaining the completed coast protection works at Rosslare Strand, County Wexford.
Forty-two proposals for coast protection works have been received from county councils. Preliminary examinations have been completed and reports furnished on six of these. Owing to shortage of funds we have had to defer further consideration of proposals. The procedure prescribed by the Coast Protection Act is protracted and I do not think that any works will commence this year. I hope to be able to make a bigger provision next year so that construction work may begin then.
Subhead J is a new subhead of the Vote. It provides for certain schemes formerly administered and financed by the Special Employment Schemes Office. They comprise marine works sponsored by the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. The provision has been increased by £5,000 over 1966-67.
Deputies will be pleased to see that there is a two-thirds increase in the provision for National Monuments. We have succeeded in recruiting a second assistant inspector and a very full programme has been put forward. Conservation works will be in hands at: Tintern Abbey, County Wexford; Kilcooley Abbey and Cahir Castle, County Tipperary; Kells Friary, County Kilkenny; Athenry Friary and Aughnanure Castle, County Galway; Urlaur Abbey, County Mayo; Bunratty Castle, County Clare; Liscarroll Castle, County Cork, and the Casino, Marino, Dublin. Works in conjunction with An Bord Fáilte are proposed at Mellifont Abbey, County Louth, Works at Ballintober Abbey, County Mayo and Derrynane Abbey have been completed and those at Muckross Abbey, County Kerry, will not take much more time. Archaeological investigations at Newgrange under Professor O'Kelly of University College, Cork, and at Knowth under Dr. Eogan of University College, Dublin, have been exciting a good deal of public interest. Other archaeological investigations are in progress at High Street, Dublin; Coomatloukane, County Kerry; Shalwy, County Donegal; Granardkille and Ardagh, County Longford; Rathcoffey, County Kildare, and Kilmagoura, County Cork. £100,000 is our estimate of what we can usefully spend this year. I hope to have a still bigger provision for 1968-69.
Táim tar éis roinnt mhaith cainte a dhéanamh an babhta seo; agus is dócha go bhfuil cuid dena Teachtaí ar na cosa deiridh chun labhartha agus a bhfuil ar a gcroí a nochtadh. Tá súil agam go mbeidh mé ábalta aon cheist a chuirfear nó aon ghearán a dhéanfar a fhreagairt go sásúil. Déanfaidh mé mo dhícheall.