asked the Minister for the Environment the reasons the full amount of capital allocation sought by Donegal County Council for direct housing in 1979 has not been paid.
473.
Written Answers. - County Donegal Direct Housing.
472.
asked the Minister for the Environment the amount sought by Donegal County Council by way of capital allocation for direct housing in 1979, the amount paid by his Department, and the shortfall involved as a percentage of the sum sought.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 472 and 473 together.
Donegal County Council sought £4.634 million for their local authority housing construction programme in 1979. Their demand was considered by me in conjunction with the claims of other housing authorities on the resources made available this year by the Government for the local authority housing construction programme and I have allocated £2.555 million to them to date. Authorities generally seek more in the aggregate than could possibly be made available to them or indeed in some cases even more than could be spent by them. Donegal County Council's claim for £4.634 million should be seen in the context of actual expenditure in 1978 of £2.022 million, in 1977 of £1.637 million, and in 1976 of £1.452 million.
The council have received a fair share of the available resources, getting the largest allocation of any county, except Dublin County Council.
I am not in a position as yet to state what the final amount of payments to the council will be this year. A total of £1.963 million has been issued to the council from the Local Loans Fund to date and they have the authority to spend an additional £0.592 million as a working balance from overdraft, pending recoupment from the Local Loans Fund in 1980.