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Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 17 Jul 1979

Vol. 315 No. 16

Estimates, 1979. - Vote 9: Public Works and Buildings.

I move:

That a sum not exceeding £44,048,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 1979, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of Public Works; for expenditure in respect of public buildings; for the maintenance of certain parks and public works; for the execution and maintenance of drainage and other engineering works; for expenditure arising from damage to the property of External Governments; and for payments of a grant-in-aid.

Is any of this £34 million being spent on the drainage of the Shannon, the Dunkellin or the river Nanny at Tuam, County Galway? Because of a problem of water supply for the town of Tuam it is very necessary that the Office of Public Works would finish the drainage of that river. They have until 1980. If they do not do it in that time the town of Tuam will have a water supply problem. Perhaps the Minister of State could say what the position is as regards doing this work in 1980.

Tonight Dublin City Council are discussing the future of the Wood Quay site and will presumably seek clarification on what the Government's attitude will be in regard to making moneys available for preservation of the national monument site. Will the Minister accede to a request to be made by the councillors to indicate clearly what the Government's attitude is as regards making moneys available. It is an important issue on which there is genuine concern and it must now be clearly seen to rest with the Government in that the law agent of Dublin Corporation, the city manager and the legal advisers of the city council have clearly said that the nature of the consent and the nature of the contract with the contractor is such that any change now will involve sums of money. Consequently, expenditure of that money will require the clear assent of the Government that they are prepared to save this national monument and make the moneys available.

Speak to your own Lord Mayor.

I am trying to speak to your Minister if possible without interruption.

You should sort out your problems before you bring them here.

I think problems are being sorted out at the meeting at the moment.

The Lord Mayor did what he had to do by law. First, I should like to say that it is outrageous that we have to spend £2,000 million in such a brief space of time.

In relation to arterial drainage, we are supposed to have an accelerated programme in this connection in the west of Ireland this year. Yet the provision for arterial drainage in the Estimates shows only an increase of 14 per cent on last year, which is exactly the average of increases for all Departments. There is no acceleration whatever judged by the amount provided under this heading this year.

Secondly, insufficient money is being provided for coast protection, the provision being only one quarter of the average increase in provision compared with 1971 as has been provided for other Departments. We have been providing less in real terms for the prevention of coastal erosion than was being provided at the beginning of the decade.

I also wish to impress on the Minister the urgency of introducing national monuments legislation which has been promised for many years by successive Governments. An endeavour to modernise this law was rejected out of hand by the Government when it was made by this side of the House a few months ago on the promise of legislation from their own side. Nothing has appeared and I gather that nothing has yet been presented to the Government. Would the Minister for State try to have something done about this quickly?

The drainage of the river Nanny at this stage would still involve the preliminaries. That would apply to any scheme. The exhibition of such a scheme would still take the statutory length of time prescribed.

What is the Minister talking about?

I was asked about the river Nanny.

It will be some time before we can come to that scheme. Deputy Bruton mentioned——

Before we go away from that scheme I should like to ask——

If the Deputy is going to——

Order. I wish to make an announcement. The time is up.

Full time?

Order. By order of the Dáil of 12 July it was decided that the proceedings on all stages of items included on the order of business on that day, if not previously concluded, would be brought to a conclusion at 10.30 p.m. tonight. All the items of business to be taken today are included in that order. It is now 10.30 p.m. and I must, in accordance with the order of the Dáil of 12 July, now bring to a conclusion the proceedings on each of the items of business still outstanding.

Vote agreed to.
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