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Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 13 Dec 1979

Vol. 317 No. 9

Supplementary Estimates, 1979. - Vote 29: Environment.

I move:

That a supplementary sum not exceeding £10 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 the Minister for the Environment, including grants to Local Authorities, grants and other expenses in connection with housing, and miscellaneous schemes and grants including a grant-in-aid.

The Supplementary Estimate is, broadly speaking, an end-year tidying up of the Vote. It is for a net amount of £10. Sufficient savings are available elsewhere in the Vote to meet the extra amounts now being sought.

The individual amount provided for "pay" in the original 1979 Estimate did not, in accordance with standing practice, make provision for the extra amounts needed to implement any pay awards that might be negotiated during the year. A number of such awards have arisen and an extra £916,000 is being provided for pay in the Supplementary Estimate. Departmental staff covered by subhead A.1. of the Vote account for £735,000; the grant-in-aid to An Foras Forbartha, £160,000; the National Road Safety Association, £8,000; the Medical Bureau of Road Safety, £5,000; and An Bord Pleanála, £8,000.

An additional £460,000 is being provided for subhead M to recoup to county councils and county boroughs the expenses they incur on the registration and licensing of mechanically-propelled vehicles and the licensing of drivers. Those expenses, formerly payable out of the Road Fund, are now payable out of the Vote. It is desirable to keep their payment up-to-date and the extra £460,000 will ensure that this can be done.

I have already mentioned the extra amount being provided in subhead L to meet additional pay costs of the National Road Safety Association and the Medical Bureau of Road Safety. A further £46,000 is being provided to the National Road Safety Association for campaigns during the Christmas period on drink and driving and on the use of seat belts. An extra £60,000 is being provided to meet the expenses of the Medical Bureau of Road Safety as a result of the active enforcement by the Garda of the breathalyser provisions of the Road Traffic Act, 1978.

The expenses of An Bord Pleanála are met by way of a grant under subhead Q. The grant is being increased to defray the additional expenditure in the renting, fitting out and equipment of new offices in which the board and the staff servicing it have been accommodated.

The subsidy to building societies, under subhead N, allows them to reduce the mortgage interest rate effectively payable by certain borrowers in the Dublin area who have building society loans, the repayments of which were guaranteed by the local authorities. The subsidy enables the interest payable by borrowers on these loans to be fixed at 9 per cent and so the subsidy reflects the difference between 9 per cent and the current mortgage rate of 14.15 per cent being charged by the societies. The result has been an increase of £24,000 in the amount needed for the subsidy this year.

Under subhead B, £175,000 more is being provided for travelling and incidental expenses. A further £38,000 is needed for subhead C to defray the cost of increased charges for telephone services and of greater use of the services. The increase of £37,000 in subhead H stems from higher costs for printing and other preparatory work on the register of electors.

In subhead S—Appropriations-in-Aid—receipts are likely to be £185,000 lower than anticipated. It is expected that there will be shortfalls of £170,000 in receipts from driver test fees and £45,000 in fees payable by the National House Building Guarantee Company Ltd. The shortfall on these two items will be partially offset by £30,000 more being realised elsewhere.

Debate adjourned.
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