Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 20 Mar 2002

Vol. 550 No. 4

Written Answers. - Departmental Funding.

Róisín Shortall

Question:

282 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development if his Department will make funding available to Dublin City Council or Fingal County Council to allow the compulsory purchase of a site which is to be used for the Finglas Horse and Pony Project; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that this project is currently stalled due to a lack of funds for this site; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9500/02]

Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development (Mr. Walsh)

The provisions of the Control of Horses Act, 1996, allow for grant assistance to be given by my Department towards the costs incurred by a local authority in implementing the Act. This can be taken to encompass local authority involvement in and support for a horse project where the local authority considers such involvement and support to be an integral part of its implementation of the Act within its functional area. My Department has already provided, via the relevant local authorities, grant support towards horse projects on this basis. Material commitment by the local authority to any given project is a prerequisite in all such instances.

In the case to which the Deputy refers, the Department has to date received no formal appli cation for grant assistance from the local authority in question, although various exchanges of an exploratory nature have taken place. Contacts in mid 2001 indicated that the cost of acquiring the total area of land involved is expected to lie somewhere between €3.2 million and €5 million, to which very substantial capital costs in respect of other elements would have to be added. Albeit that such contacts were exploratory in nature, the Department at the time expressed concern at the magnitude of costs envisaged and it was understood that the local authority and others were to subsequently consider this matter further.

I should point out that the funds available to my Department to assist local authorities in their implementation of the Control of Horses Act are, in any given year, limited. In the current year this is of the order of €2.5 million per annum.