asked the Minister for Local Government what facts he took into consideration in agreeing to the proposal to appoint two rate collectors for rate collection district No. 20 in County Donegal, as this district was formerly collected by one collector; if the Donegal County Manager's proposal regarding the collection of rates in the district was considered; if so, if he will indicate his reasons for rejecting this proposal; and if the councillors are liable to surcharge in voting for a proposal which results in increased expenditure without having specifically provided for this expenditure in the estimate of expenses.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Donegal Rate Collectors.
53.
The proposal submitted to me by the Donegal County Manager with the consent of the county council was for the creation of an additional office of rate collector to enable the local authority to give effect to their decision to divide Districts Nos. 16 and 20 between three collectors on a salary and bonus basis. In sanctioning the proposal, I took into account the local authority's view that District No. 16 was too big for one collector on the standard salary and the fact that the cost of collection by three salaried collectors would be less than it would be if two collectors were appointed at the poundage rates of remuneration which applied to the former holders of the offices. No alternative proposal was submitted to me by the county manager.
The making of a surcharge as suggested in the Question is not a matter for me, but I do not think that expenses of the nature involved here have to be specifically provided in the Estimate. There is an overall economy in the arrangements now approved as compared with the former arrangement of two collectors on poundage rates of remuneration.
Is the Minister serious when he says he considers the area too large for one man and that he now proposes to have two, when, in fact, for the past 22 years, it was a lady who collected the rates? Is it not true to say that the two posts are already filled?
The Deputy again would like——
The Deputy wants to expose the truth.
——to have a debate in this House somewhat on the level to which he has brought the debates in his own Council recently, which is a pity in a council which was quite good up to his advent.
The Minister is well known for his discourtesy.
It embarrasses the Minister.
It does not embarrass the Minister.
Surely the Minister ought to explain to the House how it comes to pass that the labour of collecting the rates in one area is now too burdensome to be undertaken by fewer than two men when, for 20 years, these duties were discharged by one woman?
The Leader of the Opposition does not understand what has been replied to. There are two districts in question in this particular case, Nos. 16 and 20. The two districts combined heretofore were collected on a poundage basis at a cost which, had there been no additional rebate in the agricultural grant last year, would amount, this year, on the present rate in the £ in Donegal, to £2,250. That would be drawn by two people, as heretofore, on a poundage basis. The proposal from the county council which I have approved of will bring about a situation wherein three collectors will be employed on these two districts on a salary and bonus basis, the sum total of which salaries and bonuses will amount to somewhere over £1,900 and it is three districts made out of two, not two made out of one, as would appear to be the suggestion here at the moment.
The Minister must appreciate that one of these collection districts has already been filled and that the collector——
The Deputy is not asking a question; he is making a statement.
I may not be asking a question but I am exposing some of the happenings in Donegal County Council at the moment and making a strong protest against them.
Question Time is a time for asking questions, not making statements.