In the course of his contribution Deputy McEllistrim referred to a project in Tralee. If I interpreted the Minister of State correctly she interjected to say the Deputy's party had plans for there in October 1982. In interjecting in that manner the Minister of State made Deputy McEllistrim's point. The Minister of State seems to have forgotten there was a general election in November 1982, that her party has now been in power for four years and in all of which time the project about which Deputy McEllistrim spoke has merely been gathering dust. The Minister of State now tells us that there will be some action taken, that there appears to be a stirring and, according to her, tenders will be advertised shortly. I hope the Minister of State will forgive me, but my suspicions are that the movement that has occurred has something to do with the forthcoming general election whether that takes place before Christmas 1986 or Christmas 1987. It would appear that an impending general election will have moved that project along somewhat.
When one takes into account all of the promises and commitments given by Ministers in recent times, the various announcements made at private and party meetings throughout the country, it would appear that the next Government — which will probably be a Fianna Fáil one — will have to pick up a tremendous bill.
I welcome this limited opportunity to discuss this Supplementary Estimate. It is of such a significant amount that had it been introduced by a Fianna Fáil Government we would have been assailed with cries of financial recklessness, cooked books, inability to estimate properly and similar accusations.
Like most other Deputies I welcome the decision to transfer responsibility for the Grand and Royal Canals from CIE to the Office of Public Works. It is only logical and sensible that the Office of Public Works, with all their expertise in water and water control, their knowledge of plant life and so on, should have control over these canals. I should like to compliment whoever is responsible for the tremendous work that is being carried out at Kilcock, a marvellous example of what can be achieved on our canals. What has been achieved there amounts to a wonderful amenity. However, I am somewhat puzzled that it should have been felt necessary by the Office of Public Works, or the Minister of State, to appoint consultants, and here I might quote from the remarks of the Minister of State when she said:
... a major study of the entire system, taking into account the vast amount of interest in and views on the canals manifested by local authorities and members of the public since the transfer.
One would have thought that the enormous expertise of the Office of Public Works, with the landscaping and maintenance of various parks and so on throughout the country, would have enabled them to carry out this work in conjunction with the detailed engineering survey of the Grand Canal which is under way. The Office of Public Works would know best how to manage and develop the canals as a public amenity given their enormous and undoubted skills in this whole area as manifest by all the major parks and lakes which they control.
It is with somewhat mixed feelings that I should like to discuss the purchase of Agriculture House. It is a very welcome purchase and is something which people have looked forward to for a long time. They like to see the Office of Public Works constructing their own buildings rather than renting them. I might add in passing that I do not see any reduction in the Estimates for rent for this year; rather it has increased as we can see from the Supplementary Estimate. Perhaps the Minister would clarify that position. When I think of the benefit this £8 million could have been to the economy of many rural areas, I wonder whether it is the sound and economic investment the Minister thinks it is. Is she aware that this sum would have constructed the proposed offices, which were cancelled by her Government, at Ballina, Sligo and Cavan? Could she attempt at this stage to quantify the tremendous and enormous benefit that would accrue to the economy of these regions, all of which are in stagnation because of the policies of the Government?
The town which I represent — Ballina — is haemorrhaging slowly. It is losing its young people and its unemployment rate is one of the highest in the country. The construction of an office of the Department of the Environment there, with over 200 salaries being paid each week into the economy of the local area, would make an enormous and significant difference to the economy of the whole area. The plans are in the Minister's office. They were carried out by OPW architects. The sites are there and all that is needed is the political will to give all areas equal treatment. The Government do not have that political will. While one welcomes the purchase of Agriculture House, one wonders whether that would have been done if Agriculture House was in Ballina, Galway or Nenagh.
As you know, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, that is one of the areas which would benefit from the whole decentralisation programme but I will not go into that because I accept your ruling. The £8 million would have been far better spent in improving the economy, particularly in the five areas to which the first section of that decentralisation programme referred and for which tenders were sought and obtained for leasing and renting, for rent and buy, or simply for construction. All the options were included in the tender. I had a great interest in the programme, having nursed it all the way through for two years.
I want to refer to the item in the Supplementary Estimate in relation to the £100,000 for the provision of necessary repairs to a courthouse. I know that the Minister has been a member of a local authority and, as such, she will know the frustration and anger caused to very many members of local authorities by the inaction of all Governments in relation to the maintenance of courthouses. The local authorities feel, and rightly so, that buildings for which they have no functional responsibility should be in the care of and maintained by the Department of Justice. One feels a certain sympathy for Galway County Council and their rate-payers who have to foot a bill for £100,000 as stated in this Supplementary Estimate. It is a very arbitrary decision that anyone would move in and carry out repairs and then ask the local authority to carry the burden. It is a function of the Department of Justice and it should be carried out by them under their budget.
One of the most significant points in the Minister's speech, one which gives an indication of the disastrous financial state of local authorities, is her admission that the appropriations-in-aid will be down by approximately £3 million. It is highly significant in that the appropriations-in-aid should not be taken out of the £14 million but out of the figure of £5.5 million which she gives. That will give an idea of the dire straits in which all local authorities find themselves, particularly those who have to fund major drainage maintenance schemes or major coastal protection schemes. I know the Minister, as a member of a local authority with a major problem of coastal protection, does not relish the idea of that local authority having to foot the bill for maintenance, if the work is ever done on coastal protection in the general Wexford area. That figure is an indictment of the manner in which this Government have crucified local authorities over the past four years in relation to their financing. I see the Leas-Cheann Comhairle looking at me.
Local authorities, as you know a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, are supposed to refund the contributions spent on drainage maintenance and coastal protection. Because of their dire financial straits they are no longer able to do so to the extent that was budgeted for. The Minister's admission that only £2.5 million out of a budgeted figure of £5.5 million will be paid shows the dire straits most local authorities are in. In fairness to all of them, as long as they could meet those responsibilities they met them. I talk in particular of my county which has major drainage works and which found itself saddled with a demand for a certain sum of money each year for work which had been put into it and over which it had no say on how or where that work would be done. At a time when various Governments had imposed a limit on the amount of money the county could raise by rates and had allowed a percentage increase only, it found itself having to reimburse the OPW for drainage maintenance. While I accept there have been some changes which are welcome, the problem is still of such a magnitude that many local authorities will not be able to meet their responsibilities under the subheads, and the fact that nearly a quarter of the Minister's speech referred to this is an indication of the enormity of the problem.
Deputy McEllistrim made the point, rightly with the tremendous number of men being laid off in drainage, one looks at the drainage Estimate and sees that it is down from last year on the full Estimate, and one wonders about salaries and wages is over and the necessity for extra money. The Office of Public Works no longer have responsibility for school building. The Department of Education have had that function for some time. Those of us who try to get information see how difficult it is. It must go through the Minister of State's office and there is a bottleneck. I have a personal problem which I will hand to the Minister of State afterwards and I will be grateful if she will try to do what she can about it.
The Supplementary Estimate is an indication of the tremendous difficulty that local authorities are having. For my part while one sees the sense of purchasing Agriculture House, the money could be better spent on the decentralisation programme. If the Fianna Fáil plan had been commenced that £8 million would have gone a fifth of the way towards the total and complete decentralisation programme which would have done a tremendous amount for very many areas, would have improved the economy of many areas, and would have been a far more sound economic and financial investment than the purchase of Agriculture House at this moment.