Vol. 417 No. 5
141 Mr. Farrelly asked the Minister for Justice the present position regarding the recoupment of expenditure incurred by county councils throughout the country on the maintenance of courthouses; when a decision will be made on this; whether the money will be allocated this year, and, if so, the amounts involved, and if he will make a statement on the matter.
142 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Justice if he will implement the Government decision of March 1990 to recoup to local authorities the cost of providing and maintaining courthouses as further clarified in April 1990 by the then Minister for the Environment who stated that these costs would be removed without reduction of rates support grants, and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 141 and 142 together.
The provision and maintenance of courthouse accommodation is, generally speaking, the responsibility of local authorities under the Courthouses (Provision and Maintenance) Act, 1935. This arrangement has not worked satisfactorily in recent years because of the reluctance of local authorities to spend money on courthouses. For this reason the Government decided in principle to transfer financial responsibility for courthouses to the Exchequer. Unfortunately the very difficult financial situation and the continuing need to contain public expenditure has meant that it has been possible to implement the Government decision only to a very limited extent.
To date, the available funds have been sufficient to enable only a small number of capital projects to be approved and it has not been possible to recoup any part of local authority expenditure on courthouse running costs. Regrettably there can be no change in that position for the current year. Local authorities are, accordingly, expected to continue to make provision for courthouse running costs and essential repairs as heretofore.
On the plus side, however, the Minister for Finance took a decision to writeoff outstanding local loans fund charges relating to courthouse accommodation with effect from 1 January 1991. The effect of this is that any local authority which in the past, and up to the end of 1990, borrowed money from the local loans fund to pay for the renovation of a courthouse does not now have to repay it.
