asked the Minister for Finance whether petitions for the improvement of lands by drainage has been received by the Board of Public Works from the Leitrim County Council, and if the Minister will now favourably consider the allocation of a sum from the Relief Schemes Vote of £150,000 to carry out some of these works at an early date, having regard to the distress and poverty prevailing in County Leitrim.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - DRAINAGE SCHEMES IN COUNTY LEITRIM.
Mr. BOURKE
The Commissioners of Public Works have received petitions in respect of nineteen drainage proposals under the Arterial Drainage Act, 1925, but none of these has yet reached the stage where a start can be made on actual drainage works.
The relief vote is intended for the relief of unemployment and must be expended before the 31st March next so that, in the circumstances, it is not likely that any of it can be spent on drainage works; such works can usually not be carried out during the winter.
Will the Secretary, in considering drainage schemes from Leitrim County, take into account the fact that Leitrim is too poor to put up economic drainage schemes, and will the Secretary consider the granting of sums, under relief schemes, to carry out these works?
Will the Secretary see that road and drainage works spasmodically undertaken in the Leitrim-Sligo area within the past four years, which have been unfinished and that are of practical use, will be now completed out of this present grant for relief of distress? Further, will he ensure that this money will in future be administered through an independent body such as the County Council, who will see that such money is spent to the best advantage, and remove the general dissatisfaction as to the manner in which public money has been spent in the past?