To ask the Minister for Finance whether the Government intends to pay the withheld grants, to the amount of £21,000, due to the Westmeath County Council; and whether, in view of the acute unemployment obtaining in Westmeath, and in order to provide work for and to relieve the sufferings of those people, he will act on the resolution of the Council, urging that payment of the grants be expedited.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. - WESTMEATH COUNTY COUNCIL GRANTS.
SEAN O LAIDHIN
The amount available for allocation to Westmeath County Council in respect of grants formerly withheld by the British Government in the Local Taxation Account was paid to the Council in September last. The issue of the normal grants for the current year, so far as still unpaid, depends upon the adjustments at present being made in the Guarantee Fund by reason especially of default in the payment of tenant purchasers' annuities.