asked the Minister for Local Government the number of projects for national development submitted to the Government through his Department by local authorities, the number of such projects which have been proceeded with, and the cost of submission of such projects by the local authorities.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - National Development Projects.
40.
I assume the Deputy is referring to the response of local authorities to the invitations issued to them in July, 1959, to submit suggestions or proposals relating to openings for State investment in important public projects of economic merit. Suggestions or proposals for approximately 700 projects were received, of which about one-third related to matters within the normal functions of local authorities. As regards the latter type of suggestion or proposal I would refer the Deputy to replies given by the Minister for Finance to Dáil questions on the 18th May, 1960, and 26th October, 1960. All the projects submitted to the Department were put forward in general outline and it can be accepted, therefore, that their submission to this Department involved no extra or special expenditure by the local authorities concerned.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary state if no further consideration has been given to these proposals since the occasion on which the Minister for Finance replied?
That is not so.
Why refer the Deputy to the content of Questions then that were answered so long ago?
The answers given by the Minister for Finance outlined the nature of the proposals which had been submitted, the different types, and that is why I am referring to them.
Did the Parliamentary Secretary say the number of projects that had been proceeded with?
I did not.
The Parliamentary Secretary was asked that in the Question.
I do not think so.
It is on my Order Paper, anyhow.
The Deputy can take it that all the projects as outlined by the Minister for Finance have been forwarded in one way or another since they were submitted.
They have not, then.
Could I ask if any of the projects have been approved?
A number of the projects, as the Minister for Finance pointed out in his reply, were projects which were the normal function of the local authorities themselves and did not satisfy the special criterion of economic merit. The remainder, as the Minister for Finance explained, were all examined and generally proceeded with in the Department.
Examined and pigeonholed.
How many were proceeded with? About one-third were appropriate schemes; that would be about 230. How many were proceeded with?
The examination of the remainder was proceeded with.
Would it not be much more honest for the Parliamentary Secretary to admit that it was all political eyewash, as everybody in the country knows?
It was not.
It would be completely false and misleading for me to suggest anything of the sort.
Name some of them that were done.
Name one.
It was all political eyewash.