Vol. 487 No. 7
245 Mr. Naughten asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government if he will allocate additional funding for staff to Roscommon County Council, in view of the huge waiting lists in planning applications and grants for provision of individual water supplied to dwelling houses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5244/98]
The new local government fund which I recently announced will provide significant additional resources for local authorities. The fund will be disbursed to individual local authorities on a basis which equalises needs and resources of the different authorities. A pilot needs and resources study is currently under way in Galway. The purpose of the study is to produce a set of indicators that will facilitate the measurement of the needs and resources of individual local authorities. The study will examine the provision of all services including planning and rural water supplies. It is my intention that funds should be distributed from the local government fund from 1999 onwards by reference to the criteria that emerge from this study.
An allocation towards the administrative costs of implementing the new measures introduced under the rural water programme was made to local authorities in July 1997. Allocations for 1998 will be announced shortly.
