It is so long ago that I hardly remember it. That is the only money that has been spent on our tourist resorts. We never got an amenity grant. We never got what has been handed out in thousands to other parts of the country. I am now drawing this to the attention of the Minister, the Parliamentary Secretary and the officials of the Department. It is about time they thought of us.
The same thing applies to sewerage schemes. We have a big concentration of new housing and caravan sites and we badly need sewerage schemes. They should be given the first priority. If the tourists find that water and sewerage schemes are not available in these resorts they are not anxious to come there again
There is another matter which is causing a lot of hardship and a lot of expense to the ratepayers of Cork county, that is, oil pollution. This year we had to make three or four attempts to clean the beaches before the tourist season started. Miles upon miles of beaches were covered with the residue of oil. The county council workers had to be sent out to clean these beaches. The House knows how big a job it is to clean a beach a mile long and to get the skin of oil off it and bury it. It cost the council a lot of money. We applied to the Department for extra money to deal with this menace, and menace I call it.
We have an oil refinery in the area but I would not say it is entirely responsible for this pollution. Many people who have studied this matter say that before the big tankers come in to take a load, or when they are cleaning out their holds, they dump not only their crude oil but also their waste oil. Some effort must be made at a national or international level to ensure that this pollution does not occur year after year. Not only is it harmful to our beaches but it is also very detrimental to offshore fishing. We are told that many miles out this pollution is lying on top of the ocean and some of it is drifting in to our coast. Something must be done about this. We have got to try to get the money to clean up our beaches.
I come now to the very important subject of rates. The Department seem to have an idea that we can keep on increasing the rates year after year. How long can this go on? For the past three or four years the rates in Cork county have gone up by over £1 per annum. Three or four years ago our rates were somewhere in the region of £3 and now they are nearer to £6, and in some cases over it. The people in our towns and villages cannot afford to pay these rates. When will these increases stop? They must stop somewhere. They cannot continue year after year. The ratepayers can no longer foot the bill. This question must be dealt with in the near future. We do not like to see a cutback in any of the public services but the people cannot afford to pay increased rates year after year.
As well as the rates being increased we have hordes of valuation officers scouring the country day and night to increase valuations. The Department are pulling in the rates with one hand and doubling valuations with the other. The position was so bad that last year members of Cork County Council asked some officials of the Valuation Office to come down to Cork County and explain to members of the council, and to the general public through the Press, what the reasons were for the increases in valuations. That was the first time we got a straight answer. It was that a house valued at £5 for rateable valuation 20 years ago was valued then at its letting value but that the same house today would be worth twice that amount. I accept that answer. However, the valuations are increasing year by year. Officials are going through the country day and night taking with them measuring tapes, and in winter flashlamps, so as to ensure that there will be plenty of revenue from the rates next year.
At this point I should mention the officials of the Department and the officials of county councils. In Cork, we have an excellent body of men who are doing a very good job. However, I have the idea that we are employing many more than we really need; that the number employed is out of proportion entirely to the amount of work being done. I do not know if the position is the same in the Custom House but I see many new faces there year after year and I hear many different voices on the telephone from time to time. I do not know whether it is a question merely of older members being replaced on retirement but it appears that the numbers there have increased considerably and, as is the case with county councils, I cannot say that the work is increasing in proportion to the increase in the number of officials.
For one thing, there is too much duplication. Our local authority engineers are as competent as any engineers to be found elsewhere but when they design a road or draw up plans for the improvement of a road, other engineers are sent from the Department and much time is lost before they finally decide to sanction the scheme. Surely when we are already paying men who are capable of doing the work, there is no necessity to send others from the Department to inspect the inspectors down there. If the work was left to our own engineers it would be done in less time and, perhaps, it would be done better. I am not saying anything against the Local Government engineers but it should not be necessary to have two or three groups of them following each other around the country. This country cannot afford that and it is about time we realised it. The money spent in this way would be better utilised in the improvement of roads.
Lastly, I shall deal with the White Paper issued during the spare time of the Department this year to every county council. I suppose it is irrelevant that this White Paper bore a green cover but it was described as something which would open a new era for local government. At the first meeting of the county council held after this document had been received, I said that this was local government by remote control. I suppose whether or not county councils accept this the Department will say to them that they can take it or leave it. I can assure the Minister and all concerned with that document that it is the vaguest document that has ever come from any Government Department. There is nothing in its 20 or 30 pages. I am sure the Parliamentary Secretary will agree with me. It was sent to the county councils asking for their opinions but why were they not consulted before it was printed so that——