asked the Minister for Local Government why he did not sanction £74,000 applied for by Galway County Council for small water and sewerage schemes costing under £20,000; and why he granted only £30,000 for these works.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Water and Sewerage Schemes.
1.
It was never envisaged that the "small schemes" programmes should be carried out in total in any one year. Although the capital provision for sanitary services is £16.75 million this year, the volume of work in progress is so high that the amount which could be made available for small schemes is necessarily limited. This amount was allocated between local authorities with due regard to the programmes submitted and the need to carry out the more urgent schemes. The £30,000 for Galway is one of the highest allocations and should enable them to undertake two or three of the nine schemes submitted.
Surely the Minister is aware that Galway County Council got nothing for those schemes last year and that, instead of the £74,000 mentioned in the question, it should be £100,000 having regard to the £26,000 which was sanctioned last year and which we did not get. Since Galway got nothing last year, would the Minister agree that we are getting a very small share of the large cake he mentioned yesterday?
I wrote to Deputy Callanan on 30th May giving him particulars and I hope he got my letter. Galway County Council did not submit their applications until 20th December, 1974. The estimated overall cost of their small schemes for 1975 was £74,000. They sent in two further schemes costing £26,000 on 28th January, bringing the total up to £100,000 roughly. I must repeat that it was never envisaged that all the schemes submitted by any local authority could be paid for and carried out in any one year. We divided the amount over all the local authorities and Galway got £30,000 which means they are doing pretty well.
The point is that £26,000 was sanctioned for 1974 and we did not get it. That means that the total application is for £100,000. We got £30,000 although we got nothing in 1974.
The point is that Galway County Council did not look for any money under this scheme until 20th December, 1974. I am sure Deputy Callanan would agree that it would not have been possible to give them money to spend last year because they did not apply for it. They must now take their place along with everybody else. They got £30,000 this year.
The manager was told on the telephone that £26,000 was sanctioned in 1974 but we did not get it.
He did not apply for it.
He said it was actually sanctioned over the telephone.
The manager is well aware of the way these things are done and Deputy Callanan is also aware of it.
Does the Minister think the share allocated to County Galway is a fair distribution of the £16 million capital allocated to all local authorities in view of the fact that we have schemes in hand which would cost £10 million over the next few years?
This relates to small schemes only. They got £30,000 for small schemes.
The Minister said that £16 million was provided for local authorities all over the country.
For all sanitary services for all local authorities.