asked the Minister for Local Government if he has decided to suspend publication of his Department's annual report; and, if not, when the reports for each of the years 1967-68, 1968-69, 1969-70 and 1970-71 will be published.
65.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Local Government Annual Report.
64.
asked the Minister for Local Government if he will furnish in respect of the years 1967-68, 1968-69, 1969-70 and 1970-71 the information contained in appendices 3, 10, 12, 16 and 19 of his Department's annual report.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 64 and 65 together.
Consideration is being given to a revision of the format of my Department's annual report in order to produce a record of the main activities of the Department as quickly as possible after the end of each financial year, in a form which will be more informative and more readable for the public in general. Up to now the usefulness of the annual reports has been confined largely to their being a statistical record of the activities of the local authorities and the time required to compile all the detailed statistical tables involved has given rise to considerable delays in the publication of reports.
It is intended to produce a single report covering the four-year period up to 31st March last as soon as possible, but I cannot say when this will be published. With regard to the information requested by the Deputy, it has been assumed that the appendices referred to relate to those in the latest published annual report. It is possible to compile those particular tables and they will be forwarded to the Deputy within a matter of days.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary not agree that it would have been helpful if this combined annual report for the last four years had been available to Deputies prior to the introduction of the Estimate since the information contained in it would naturally be of very great assistance to Deputies in making their contributions?
I would agree with the Deputy, but this is a complete change and, for that reason, it was not possible to make the report available earlier.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary be able to give the House any idea as to what will be in the new report that was not in the old report and vice versa?
I cannot answer that question. The general idea is to give the report in a more interesting format, giving the basic principles rather than a mass of detailed information.
Is this the first time the reports have been combined over a four-year period?
I think so.
In respect of 1965 would it be possible to have the appendices published in the Official Report?
Yes.