asked the Minister for the Environment if, in view of the increased liability on local authorities for road workers' pensions over a number of years, he will allocate additional moneys to meet their commitments in that field of responsibility.
Ceisteanna—Questions. - Road Workers' Pensions.
6.
The net cost of road workers' pensions, in common with the net cost of the pensions of other former local authority employees, is a matter to be taken into account by each local authority in the settlement of their estimate of expenses for each financial year.
Would the Minister agree that he himself has a definite responsibility for those retired road workers who have given many years of service to our people and that this concern should be reflected in an independent allocation, aside from the road works scheme, in the same manner as in Britain, to ensure that we have sufficient money to do what the road scheme was intended to do, that is the job of looking after the roads?
The road grant allocations for 1979 were generous in comparison with previous years and would in effect allow local authorities to take into account the cost of paying the pensions of some local authority employees.
With regard to this very praiseworthy practice of giving road workers something worth while on their retirement, those benefits arise each year due to increases in the cost of living and it takes a bigger portion of the road work programme money. Surely, if the Minister has a social concern for those people, there should be an independent allocation to look after the pensions of our local authority workers and not have a situation where money meant for the implementation of road programmes and the payment of road workers has to be used? The money allocated for Road Fund programmes should be used for that purpose alone. Pensions for road workers should be an independent allocation. This is getting bigger every year.
The Deputy is pleading. Question No. 7.
Would the Minister agree that both the 10 per cent VAT mentioned in the previous question and the road workers pensions, which is becoming a serious subject, will substantially reduce the improved grants he has boasted about?
(Interruptions.)
It will have an effect but not a substantial one.
Is the Minister satisfied that there is adequate segregation of money devoted to pensions from money for purely current road authority expenditure?
I am satisfied that the local authorities have made provision for the pension.
I can assure the Minister that the county managers are not satisfied.