(Cavan): I wish to raise the subject matter of Question No. 19 on the Adjournment because of the unsatisfactory nature of the Minister's reply and because this is something which concerns my constituency in a very particular way.
Up to the 1st April, 1967, a scheme known as the Rural Improvements Scheme was operated by the Department of Finance through the Board of Works and under this scheme lanes were repaired and drainage works carried out by way of a State grant with the assistance of a small local contribution. In 1965 and 1966 it was difficult to obtain grants under this scheme. Money was scarce and the stock answer was that the cash allocated for the year had been expended. As from the 1st April, 1967, the Department of Finance washed its hands of the scheme and handed it over to the Minister for Local Government to be administered by him.
One would have thought that being a local and rural affair and the Minister being in close touch with local authorities there would have been an improvement but there was not. Instead of improving, the position deteriorated and on the 1st April of this year there had accumulated in the Minister's Department a list of 112 cases from the constituency of County Cavan which had not been dealt with, 112 applications for grants to have lanes to the houses of the people of County Cavan repaired were lying unattended to in the Minister's office. It would have cost about £70,000 to carry out the work involved in these 112 applications.
Again, we were entitled to think that when the Minister accumulated that list of neglected applications in his Department he would have shown some concern about it but what do we find? We find that instead of increasing the grant and getting on with the work the Minister for Local Government as from 1st April, 1968, introduced and passed the Local Government (Roads and Drainage) Act, 1968, again washing his hands completely of this scheme and scrapping the scheme.
The Minister by the Local Government (Roads and Drainage) Act, 1968, transferred, or purported to transfer, the scheme to the local authorities. In other words, he handed over to Cavan County Council 112 applications from constituents of mine which he had neglected and the cost of carrying out the work involved in those applications according to Cavan County Council would have been about £70,000. I have been vitally concerned about this problem since I entered this House. I ascertained that the Minister had allocated £14,000 to County Cavan for the current year to cover this scheme and I protested and I told the Minister that I would continue to protest. As a result, on paper this allocation of £14,000 was increased to £30,000. Following from what I have said previously this £30,000 would have been sufficient to deal with fewer than half the applications from County Cavan to repair lanes and dangerous bridges which the Minister had neglected.
That was the position on the 1st April, 1968. The people of Cavan concerned and very much affected by these impassable lanes hoped that under the new scheme to be operated by Cavan County Council, mark you, within a grant, within cash which was to be provided by the Minister, these lanes and dangerous bridges would be dealt with. What happened? Month after month went by and not one application was dealt with. Instead, 251 more applications poured into Cavan County Council and instead of having 112 applications there now are 112 plus 251 or 363 applications. The people could not understand why Cavan County Council were not getting on with the work. It was discussed at Cavan County Council. One would have thought that the Minister for Local Government who was responsible for neglecting this for a couple of years would have co-operated with the county council in clearing up the arrears and in dealing with the new applications, but not alone did the Minister, I regret to say, not co-operate with Cavan County Council in doing this vital work which so vitally affects the constituency of County Cavan but he obstructed the county council.
I do not think I am being unfair to the Minister or saying anything that is untrue when I say that he obstructed the county council and made it impossible for them to carry out the work. That is why I put down this question today. I said that the Minister obstructed the county council and made it impossible for them to carry out the work because this was a new scheme in County Cavan as in other counties. The county council had not the technical staff to carry out the work. They had not the necessary engineers to survey the applications and to assess them and to prepare estimates. The county manager could not get the staff. The county manager then in August last, having done his best to obtain additional staff and having failed, made a very reasonable proposal to the Minister. He proposed that the work be done by the existing engineering staff of Cavan County Council in their spare time and that the engineering staff be allowed fees; in other words, that they be allowed overtime for doing overtime work. The proposition was put up to the Minister for Local Government in August last. That was four months after the Bill became an Act and after the scheme was thrust on Cavan County Council, but the Minister has not yet sanctioned the reasonable proposal of Cavan County Council and as a result not one of the 112 applications which the Minister allowed to accumulate in his Department has been dealt with. Needless to say, none of the additional 251 which have come in since has been dealt with.
As a result of the numerous applications and representations made to me I was forced to put down this question. On the list of applications awaiting attention in Cavan are a number of dangerous bridges and we know that a few years ago a grant was refused under a former scheme to repair a bridge and that when a young lad was driving a tractor across the bridge a short time afterwards the bridge collapsed. But for a miracle that young lad would have been killed. The bridge was then repaired but there are more dangerous bridges now awaiting repair. I put down this question today:
To ask the Minister for Local Government if he will state (a) the amount of money finally allocated to County Cavan for the current year under the Local Government (Roads and Drainage) Act, 1968, (b) the number of applications received by Cavan County Council under the Act, including those transferred from his Department, (c) the number of schemes which have actually been commenced by the county council since the Act came into operation and (d) the cause of the delay in attending to the applications received.
I got this reply from the Minister: (a) £30,000. That means that £30,000 was allocated: (b) 363 applications awaiting attention on 14th October, 1968; (c) none dealt with since the Act came into operation and (d) the Minister said he understood that the delay in attending to applications has been caused by local organisational difficulties in getting the local improvements scheme into operation.
By way of supplementary question I asked the Minister if it was not a fact that the delay in getting the scheme going was due to the fact that the Minister had refused to sanction a proposal put before him by Cavan County Council as far back as August last which would solve any difficulties there were in getting the scheme going. The Minister replied: "No. The county manager has been instructed to make arrangements to carry out the works and is being given every assistance by my Department." In that reply to that supplementary question the Minister had deliberately misled the House but he will not mislead the people of County Cavan because they may see and have seen in the Anglo-Celt of 18th October last, that the delay is due to the fact that the Minister refused to sanction the application submitted to him by Cavan County Council to approve of the employment of the existing staff on an overtime basis.
The people of Cavan have read that in the Anglo-Celt and know about it. Either the Minister has wilfully and dishonestly misled the House in that reply to my supplementary question today or he does not know what is going on in his Department. The people of County Cavan will not accept as an excuse from the Minister that he was engaged all year on this wild scheme of trying to destroy democracy. They are not concerned with that but with the practical realities of getting a decent way of travelling to and from their homes.
Apart from what appeared in the Anglo-Celt, I have in my possession a letter from the county secretary dated 21st October, 1968, in which he says that he has been directed by the county manager to refer to representations made by me regarding the carrying out of works under the local improvements scheme and to state that to date this scheme has not been implemented. He says:
The council were unable to recruit engineers for the survey or preparation of estimates for works under the above scheme and in August last a proposal was submitted to the Department for the carrying out of the work by the council's existing engineers in their spare time on a fee basis. So far this proposal has not been approved by the Department and consequently work on these schemes has not been proceeded with pending the Department's decision.
The discussion in Cavan County Council was not confined to members of the Fine Gael Party or to Independents but members of the Minister's Party took part in it and members of the Minister's Party on the council say it is a disgrace that money has been collected and held by people and that these lanes will not be done. We had a proposal by one Fianna Fáil councillor, seconded by another, calling on the Minister to approve of the county council's proposal to have these schemes examined by the existing engineering staff in their spare time and paid for on a fee basis. That has been described by all members of Cavan County Council as a reasonable solution.
Was the Minister not aware of that? Does he know what is going on in his Department? Is he concerned with this scheme which was ditched first by the Department of Finance on 1st April, 1967, and then by his Department on 1st April, 1968? One would think that at least if the Minister was not prepared to do the work under his Department he would desist from obstructing Cavan County Council in their efforts to get on with it. I take an extremely poor view of the reply to my supplementary question to the Minister today. If it were in another Parliament and if the Minister were caught out in a piece of attempted deception like this it would have very serious consequences for him.
I put it plainly to him that the delay was due to the fact that the county manager put a proposal to him in August last to solve the difficulty and get the scheme going and that the Minister refused to sanction that and this was the cause of the delay. To this the Minister said "no"; that the county manager had been instructed to make arrangements to carry out the works and had been given every assistance by his Department. I am entitled to an explanation and I think the House is entitled to an explanation. Certainly the people of Cavan who live in these lanes and find it impossible to travel them are entitled to an explanation. So are the women who live in these lanes and have to wear wellingtons until they reach the road, leave their wellingtons in a house along the road and change into shoes then.
Seven months of this year have gone and not a penny of this £30,000 allocated on paper to us has been forthcoming. The winter months are upon us and the Minister knows as well as I do that you cannot do this type of work in winter and that it will not be done. Did the Minister ever intend that this money or any part of it should be expended this year? Lest there be any doubt about it I understand Cavan is not the only county affected. To clarify that position I shall have further questions down next month. I understand this is the pattern all over the country and that this scheme has not been implemented in county after county because there is no cooperation between the Minister and the county councils and because the Minister expects the councils to do the impossible. When the Minister's Department was operating this scheme the council engineers did not do the work; the Minister's engineers did it. How can he expect the county councils to do the work without the equipment and the necessary technical men?
