asked the Minister for the Environment if he will introduce conversion grants for the use of natural gas in Dublin, in view of the serious problems with smog in the last two winters.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Conversion Grants for Use of Gas.
9.
Section 45 of the Air Pollution Act, 1987, provides for the making of schemes for the granting of financial assistance for certain works which may be necessary to enable premises in a special control area to comply with the requirements of a special control area order. It is my intention to make schemes as necessary in accordance with these provisions.
Let us take the example of Crumlin, my own constituency, which I understand to be high on the priority list for the next conversion scheme. Would the Minister tell the House precisely what type of grants will be available for residents living in that area? Presumably they will be comparable with the grants available to those living in Ballyfermot. Will they extend to conversion to gas heating?
No details about the grants will be finalised until such time as the area control order has been cleared. There are no proposals for grants for conversions outside the special control area. The impact of the Deputy's question was that there should be. I am saying that there will be no grants for areas outside areas of control as laid down following the investigations. Then, grant schemes will be made available within those area control orders, once they have been cleared.
May I take it (a) that the Minister is open to the suggestion that he might extend conversion grants for conversion to gas in the designated areas and (b) in the other designated areas outside Ballyfermot that he will extend the same terms which are available to the residents of that area, which is a designated area?
Natural gas is one of the range of smokeless fuel options for which grant assistance is available in the area to which the special control order, that is the Ballyfermot Order of 1988, applies. What will happen with regard to the next order we will see when that matter has been disposed of. As the Deputy knows, there is a slight hold-up in the next order area business. The gas company, as the Deputy himself knows, are operating and promoting an attractive half-price conversion scheme at present, even outside the order areas.
No commercials, please.
Would the Minister be in a position to tell the House when he is likely to be able to make an announcement regarding the new designated areas scheme?
As the Deputy knows, the matter is temporarily held up because of High Court activity. I wish it were not so. I should like to proceed with those areas as quickly as possible. In the recent past we have had to stall in so far as progress on the matter is concerned. I hope that it can be disposed of as quickly as possible in all our interests in order to get on with the area orders for which we have some money. I want to have a nice conversion process in place, certainly before next winter.
Will the Minister acknowledge that the grant scheme being currently confined to one designated area is acting as a direct disincentive to people living in all the other areas which have the possibility of being designated to take any action to provide smokeless fuel systems within their homes? In the light of the urgency of the matter and in the context of the need to ensure that smog in Dublin next winter will not be as bad as it has been this winter, would he not now consider extending the grant scheme to areas that have been very badly affected by smog in recent months, such as Crumlin and the other areas of which the Minister is aware, which need to be dealt with?
I shall apply whatever grant assistance is necessary in whatever areas the competent authority put up as subject for a special area control order. It is not my intention, as I have stated before, to provide grant assistance for conversions everywhere and anywhere in this city.
I want to come to deal with other questions. I have dwelt rather long on this question.
We had an experience of serious smog last winter, I accept that. This winter, perhaps. I still return to what I have said on a number of previous occasions. It can be avoided by individual action by individual people. It does not come in transboundary. What goes up the chimney comes right down exactly on that house, so people have a choice. My campaign is geared to that, trying to get people to understand that even in the short period when the wind and the temperature are in the right inversion situation——
People in places like Crumlin cannot afford to do their own conversions. They have not the money.
I am calling Deputy Gay Mitchell for a final supplementary.
That is exactly the reason for the special control order.
We will have next winter the danger of smog that we have had this winter.
Let the Deputy not be a prophet of doom.
Will the Minister do everything in his power to ensure that any necessary conversion schemes are available during the late spring and early summer so that the problem will not recur and that every step will be taken to ensure that the problem will not occur in the coming winter?
That is why I expressed my regret that the area orders coming on stream now are being stymied——
Hear hear.
——by action that I do not want. If we could just get over that we would have the orders.
Well said.
We would be getting on with the job. However, it seems that no matter how well intentioned I am sometimes in this matter, there are those who wish to see that negatived.
I call Question No. 10.
Would the Minister extend the grant scheme to selected areas? He would still have time to do that.