Vol. 397 No. 10
4 Mr. Shatter asked the Minister for the Environment the criteria he intends to apply in determining the allocation of national lottery moneys this year to projects recommended to him for funding by local authorities in the context of the announced national lottery funds allocated to his Department by the Minister for Finance; and the total funding sought to date by way of such recommendation from each local authority.
7 Mr. McGahon asked the Minister for the Environment the amount of money from the national lottery which has been applied for in respect of amenity projects in County Louth; and the list of those projects which have been submitted to him for approval by Louth County Council.
78 Mr. Shatter asked the Minister for the Environment if he will give details in respect of each local authority of each project recommended or proposed to him for national lottery funding this year; the total moneys sought or recommended in respect of each such project.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 4, 7 and 78 together.
The number and amount of grants recommended to me by each local authority under the amenities/recreational facilities scheme, 1990 is set out in a table which I propose to circulate in the Official Report.
The preparation of a statement giving details of each of the 3,968 projects involved would absorb a disproportionate amount of staff time. In any event, this information might more appropriately be obtained directly from the local authorities whose responsibility it was to process the applications.
In making grant allocations, I will take account of the desirability of the proposed work, the cost effectiveness of the project and the employment which may be expected to result. In addition, the need to distribute the available funds on an equitable basis to all areas of the country will be kept in mind.
|
Local Authority |
No. |
Amount (£000's) |
|
County Councils |
||
|
Carlow |
81 |
3,621 |
|
Cavan |
108 |
3,125 |
|
Clare |
87 |
2,306 |
|
Cork |
309 |
12,213 |
|
Donegal |
207 |
20,464 |
|
Dublin |
160 |
4,773 |
|
Galway |
138 |
3,192 |
|
Kerry |
174 |
5,854 |
|
Kildare |
159 |
10,995 |
|
Kilkenny |
52 |
2,182 |
|
Laois |
129 |
4,811 |
|
Leitrim |
82 |
2,010 |
|
Limerick |
153 |
4,746 |
|
Longford |
59 |
1,288 |
|
Louth |
121 |
9,299 |
|
Mayo |
246 |
9,791 |
|
Meath |
104 |
3,745 |
|
Monaghan |
101 |
2,474 |
|
Offaly |
204 |
5,395 |
|
Roscommon |
97 |
2,998 |
|
Sligo |
139 |
5,837 |
|
Tipperary NR |
116 |
2,025 |
|
Tipperary SR |
118 |
2,894 |
|
Waterford |
62 |
2,442 |
|
Westmeath |
77 |
1,822 |
|
Wexford |
134 |
4,906 |
|
Wicklow |
118 |
7,938 |
|
County Borough Corporations |
||
|
Cork |
55 |
3,200 |
|
Dublin |
182 |
4,601 |
|
Galway |
35 |
2,317 |
|
Limerick |
55 |
2,476 |
|
Waterford |
65 |
2,948 |
|
Dún Laoghaire |
41 |
1,385 |
|
Total |
3,968 |
160,073 |
Will the Minister indicate the total costing of the 3,968 projects submitted to him?
It is £163,073,000 approximately.
Will the Minister agree that the procedure he has adopted for the distribution of £6.5 million of amenity and recreational funding from the lottery fund is a total farce? Will he agree that the number of projects that have been submitted to his Department together with the value of these projects makes it virtually impossible for his Department to properly trawl through those proposals to determine to whom money should be provided? Is he aware that the all-party working group on the lottery recommended that amenity and recreational grants funded from the national lottery should be operated by the provision of block grants to local authorities so that each local authority would be responsible for determining——
This is a very long question, Deputy Shatter.
——which projects should receive money? Will the Minister not agree that is a far more sensible and better approach and if such an approach is not adopted he will again lay himself open, as the working party predicted, to allegations of patronage when final provisions are made?
I must say the time for dealing with Priority Questions is exhausted now.
First of all, local authorities had an opportunity to consider the 3,968 applications. They considered that each of them on its own merits satisfied the criteria established for consideration for grant allocation, they found them all satisfactory, and I agree——
How can the Minister's Department distinguish between those provisions?
Why does the Deputy keep interrupting?
How do the Department deal——
Why does the Deputy keep interrupting?
It is well past time for dealing with Priority Questions. I want to deal with other questions.
May I finish just the sentence I had started when I was so rudely interrupted by the Member opposite? They considered them all appropriate. I agree with Deputy Shatter; very little money is available, £6.5 million to cater for projects costing £160 million but it will be done fairly. Every single project of the 3,968, as far as I am concerned personally, is entitled to money but, unfortunately, they cannot all get it. As long as Deputies and councillors recognise that is the position.
Why did the Minister not implement the working party's recommendations.
Because this is the fairest way to do it.
The working party said it was the most ludicrous and foolish way to do it.
The Minister has so much money to spend, he will make the best use possible of it and the groups who get grant aid I am sure will be quite happy.
The Minister is back to the patronage the Progressive Democrats pretended in the last Dáil to disagree with.
You are very cross today.
It is the same——
Deputy Shatter, this business of heckling from a seated position is not good enough.
I am happy to heckle the Minister in a standing position. He is dealing with public money. That is not the way public money should be dealt with. He is ignoring——
If Deputy Shatter insists on disrupting Question Time to this extent I shall have to deal with him.
