asked the Minister for the Environment if his attention has been drawn to the fact that Cavan Council has been notified that it will receive a rate support grant allocation of £3,678,000 in 1990; to the fact that if the grant was to be based on the actual valuation and the rate in the pound provided for in the Estimates, the total income due to Cavan County Council would be £3,859,864 greater that the actual allocation; the action he will take to make up the shortfall having regard to the serious and unacceptable condition of 1,500 miles of county roads; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that school bus transport and other services have been withdrawn from many of these roads; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - Cavan County Council Rate Support Grant.
203.
The 1989 discretionary road grant allocations notified to Cavan County Council for regional and county roads amount to £1.528 million which represents an increase of £319,000, or 26 per cent on the grant payments under equivalent headings in 1988 and is almost 2½ times the level of comparable grant payments in 1985.
I have allocated a rate support grant of £3.678 million to Cavan County Council for 1990 and this was notified to the council recently. The rate support grant for Cavan County Council has been adjusted on a number of occasions in recent years in respect of the elimination of local authority financial responsibility for contributions towards supplementary welfare allowances, county committees of agriculture, loan charges written off under the Local Loans Fund (Amendment) Act, 1987 and in respect of rates payable by the ESB to the council. Having regard to these adjustments, the comparison attempted by the Deputy, of the actual grant allocation with the amount got by applying the rate in the £ to rateable valuations (including land) now exempt from rates would lack validity, even if it could be assumed that the proposed rate in the £ would remain unaffected by the major changes in the liability of property to local rates under the Local Government (Financial Provisions) Act, 1978 and subsequently.