Will the Minister tell us what this Inter-Departmental Committee in connection with Public Works have in mind when they speak of novel schemes of work? It has come to my notice that local authorities have abandoned schemes that, otherwise, would have been dealt with by these local authorities, because of the idea that these schemes were to be financed by the Inter-Departmental Committee. I gather that there has been a widespread misconception as to the type of schemes this Committee will finance, and that that has been the cause of certain schemes being abandoned by local authorities. If it is not intended to finance schemes which are properly in the domain of the local authorities at present, the Committee should make that clear. Cases have come to my notice recently where a public work of rather urgent character, in a particular town in my own constituency, and which had arrived at an advanced stage, was sent to the Inter-Departmental Committee in the belief that the local authority might induce the Committee to finance that scheme. The receipt of the proposals for the scheme was duly acknowledged by the Committee, and I believe that that acknowledgment led them to believe that the scheme might be financed by the Inter-Departmental Committee.
The fact of acknowledging a letter in that way seems to me to be calculated to give a local authority the impression that there is a chance that a scheme of that kind will be financed by the inter-Departmental Committee. I suggest to the Minister that some steps should be taken to indicate in broad outline the kind of schemes the Committee have in mind and that the inter-Departmental Committee ought not be used by local authorities as a means of avoiding the carrying out of schemes for public works which are properly within the province of these local authorities at present.
With Deputy Morrissey and Deputy Mulcahy, I am anxious to know whether this Committee has published any report and whether the report will be made available to Deputies, either by sending them individual copies or by laying it on the Table of the House. There was a good deal of Press publicity given to the fact that the Committee had been established, and there was a good deal of boosting in relation to the novel kind of schemes the Committee would undertake. I should like to know whether any proposals have been made by the Committee for dealing with any of these novel schemes of public works, what kind of schemes they propose to finance, and generally, what has been done by this inter-Departmental Committee.
There is a sub-head in the Estimate providing for the expenditure of £1,700 this year on Commissions and Inquiries not specifically provided for, which I do not see explained subsequently in the Estimate. I should like to know whether any of that money has been spent during the present financial year and, if so, on what kind of Commissions and Inquiries.