asked the Minister for the Environment the present position in relation to the payment of a house improvement grant to a person (details supplied) in County Galway.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Grant Payments.
3.
There is no record of the receipt in my Department of an application for a house improvement grant from the person named.
(Cavan-Monaghan): Did I understand the Minister to say there was no record of an application in this case?
No, there is no record.
(Cavan-Monaghan): Does that not prove what I was saying yesterday, that there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of these cases? They are in Galway and in Cavan. Every Deputy is getting the same answer that there is no record of an application. Will not the Minister agree that this calls for some kind of investigation? Everyone cannot be wrong.
I asked the Department to do a thorough check on this matter. The civil servants informed me of the position. The Deputy was in government and he had the pleasure of working with civil servants. He must fully realise their position also. I am giving the House the information as given to me by the Department. I queried very recently replies of this nature and asked that the information be checked. It is my intention to continue to do that.
(Cavan-Monaghan): I am asking the Minister as a sensible man — not as a Minister of State — if he thinks that people in Cavan, Monaghan, Galway and throughout the country are suffering from hallucinations thinking that they are posting applications for loans when they are not so doing.
With due respect, I think the Deputy may be exaggerating the point. As I pointed out yesterday, in the two weeks between the announcement and the closing date on 1 February some 40,000 applications were received in the Department, were indexed, recorded and files made up. In some cases people told the Deputy and other Deputies that they had posted forms but they may not have done so. I cannot say, but I am going on the information I got from the Department.
4.
asked the Minister for the Environment when a reconstruction grant will be paid to a person (details supplied) in County Kilkenny as it has been approved by his Department for the past three years.
There is no record of the receipt in my Department of an application for a house improvement grant from the person named.
(Cavan-Monaghan): This is a similar occurrence, presumably in Kilkenny. So far there have been cases of no record of applications from Cavan, Monaghan, Galway and Kilkenny. Will not the Minister accept that something has gone wrong in his Department and that it is his business, as the man now in charge of it, to get the matter straightened out or to have an inquiry?
I want to emphasise that I am following procedure. When I left office in a temporary nature——
The Minister is back in a similar fashion.
(Cavan-Monaghan): Is the Minister suggesting he should have fixity of tenure?
Yesterday I stated that the same procedures I implemented in the Department were used by the Minister and the Ministers of State of the previous Government. They did not make any alterations. When I came back to the Department I asked them to give as much information as possible and to ensure that the correct information was given. I told the officials of my Department that if any Member of this House rings them they should tell him the position. That is the way I want things to be done.
(Cavan-Monaghan): Will not the Minister agree that in this case the unfortunate civil servants can do nothing? The files have disappeared, have been thrown out, burned or stolen. At any rate they are not there.
Is the Deputy alleging that the civil service threw out the files or burned them? Yesterday the Minister was coming to this. Is he trying to rub the goose grease into them further? The Deputy will have to make up his mind. I have the fullest confidence in the officials of the Department doing the job that I and other Ministers ask them to do. I want to make it clear to the House that I would take a very serious view of any file that was mislaid or lost or of wrong information given. The Deputy has been in several Governments in the past and he should realise the situation. In the time I have been in the Department I have asked the officials to make sure that all files are accounted for and I have asked them to bring up-to-date all relevant information. I have nothing further to add.
(Cavan-Monaghan): Does not the Minister agree that the apparent best efforts of his predecessors and himself are not good enough and that they are not having any results? Does the Minister seriously believe that Deputy Fahey, Deputy Gibbons and myself are making bogus representations or putting in bogus applications? Does he think we have not enough sense to judge the people who come to us? I have genuine sympathy for the Minister but I have sympathy also for the people who are being deprived of £600 or £700. I want the Minister to do something about it.
I do not want the House to think that Deputy Fitzpatrick or anyone else was putting in bogus applications. Far from that. I am investigating the matter further to see if any further improvements can be made. There is a limit to how far I can go, but they know in the Department that I am very anxious to have administration in the grants section working smoothly and properly. That is my intention.
5.
asked the Minister for the Environment if he will arrange for the immediate payment of a reconstructin grant to a person (details supplied) in County Galway.
An application for a reconstruction grant under the old scheme could not be processed until the applicant furnished evidence that he had entered into a commitment to start work by 21 January 1980. This evidence was received recently and arrangements have been made for an early inspection with a view to payment of the grant if in order.
6.
asked the Minister for the Environment when a house improvement grant will be paid to a person (details supplied) in Bunclody, County Wexford.
On receipt in my Department of notification of completion of work an inspection will be arranged with a view to payment of the grant, if in order.