andMr. Tully asked the Minister for the Environment if he will give details for each local authority of the allocation of £114 million under the Public Capital Programme 1981; the amount of that capital being allocated to projects for which commitments have been made in the year ended December 1980; and if he will express the total amount of £114 million as a net increase of capital for projects to be initiated, as distinct from projects which have on-going commitments for 1980.
Ceisteanna—Questions Oral Answers - Public Capital Programme.
11.
I wish to refer the Deputies to my reply to Question No. 18 of 11 February 1981. The provision of £114 million includes a sum of £5.5 million for the acquisition of private houses under the low-rise mortgage scheme and the allocation of this amount forms part of a combined allocation which provides also for requirements arising in respect of house purchase and improvement loans and supplementary grants. Particulars of these allocations were given in the reply referred to and it was stated also that the allocations for local authority housing in 1981 had not yet been made. This is still the position. Until the applications from local authorities for allocations to finance on-going commitments in 1981 have been dealt with I shall not be in a position to say the proportion of the total provision that will be available for new projects.
The Minister, perhaps inadvertently, has answered Question No. 12 instead of Question No. 11.
I have answered Question No. 11 and I will be answering Questions Nos. 12, 13 and 14 together.
Perhaps a member of the staff mis-arranged the replies because Question No. 11 does not refer to low-rise mortgage loans.
The answer I have given is correct according to my brief. What is involved is a breakdown of the moneys for low-rise mortgage schemes and also of other moneys. I take it that what the Deputy really wants to know is when local authorities will be notified of their allocations and in reply to that I can tell the Deputy that they will be so notified by the end of March.
Nearly one-third of the year has passed already.
Question No. 11 reads:
To ask the Minister for the Environment if he will give details for each local authority of the allocation of £114 million under the Public Capital Programme 1981; the amount of that capital being allocated to projects for which commitments have been made in the year ended December 1980; and if he will express the total amount of £114 million as a net increase of capital for projects to be initiated, as distinct from projects which have on-going commitments for 1980.
With respect, Question No. 12 is the one which the Minister has answered.
The information requested in the question was also the subject of a Dáil question from Deputy Tully, that was, Question No. 18 of 11 February last. A copy of the question and of the reply was issued on that date.
I do not wish to become involved in a dispute with the Chair on this matter but I am entitled to ask questions and to have them replied to. The Public Capital Programme——
The Deputy may not make a statement.
If the question had been answered I would not be on my feet now but the Minister answered Question No. 12 instead of Question No. 11 and has not seen fit to apologise.
At least he is consistent because on the last occasion he mixed questions up also.
If the Deputies would make up their minds as to whether they wish to have either written or verbal replies, I shall accommodate them.
Question No. 12.
I am on my feet on a point of order. Would the Minister indicate to the House in respect of the £114 million allocated for 1981 how much is committed already and what is the net available capital to each local authority to initiate new projects this year? Have I said that slowly enough?
The amount provided for the payment of ordinary local authority house purchase loans in 1981 is £93 million while the corresponding figure for 1980 was £65 million.
That is the information sought in Question No. 12. This is ridiculous.
I shall allow a final supplementary from Deputy Tully.
It appears that there has been some crossing of lines so far as these questions are concerned and there is no point in the Minister, albeit through no fault of his own, replying to questions which are not the ones that have been tabled. To do so confuses both him and us.
If the Deputy wishes to have a detailed reply, I shall facilitate him.
In the circumstances perhaps I could have Questions Nos. 11 and 12 postponed.
I am taking Nos. 12, 13 and 14 together.
Is it any wonder that the porter did not want to let the Minister in?
12.
andMr. Tully asked the Minister for the Environment if he will give details of (1) the capital sums provided in the Public Capital Programme 1981 for the financing of the low-rise mortgage scheme for each local authority; and (2) the moneys made available to, and subsequently expended by each local housing authority in 1980.
13.
andMr. Tully asked the Minister for the Environment if he will state for each local housing authority the moneys being made available out of the Public Capital Programme 1981 provision of £96.25 million for: (a) grants (disabled persons), (b) loans (SDA) and (c) house improvement loans.
14.
asked the Minister for the Environment if he will state the amount of money given by his Department to each local authority under the heading of SDA loans for 1981, and the amount sought by each local authority in respect of such loans.
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 12, 13 and 14 together.
Separate allocations are not made for each of the several housing loans and grant schemes operated by local authorities. Instead a single allocation is made to meet authorities' expenditure requirements on them.
The total provision for the payment of local authority housing loans and supplementary grants in 1981 is £101.650 million of which £5.50 million is for the low-rise mortgage schemes. The capital provided for these services in 1980 was £71.5 million of which £5.25 million was in respect of the low-rise mortgage schemes. Final expenditure figures for 1980 are not yet available for the schemes involved.
Details of the 1981 allocations for housing loans and grants which were notified to the local authorities concerned on February 6 1981 were given in my reply to Question No. 18 on February 11 last.
Because there appears to be a mix-up about these questions, perhaps I could ask just one supplementary and add a request that the Minister take the brief back to the Department and try to find out what went wrong. Is the Minister aware that a number of local authorities have discontinued in the main the low-rise mortgage schemes for 1981? Is he aware that low-rise mortgage schemes which applied to the new tenants of local authority houses have been discontinued completely? Is this the wish of the Department or are the local authorities doing something which the Department do not approve of? During my time in office I introduced these low-rise mortgage schemes and they were intended to apply to all those schemes.
What the Deputy alleges had not been brought to my attention but I will have the situation investigated and will communicate with the Deputy.
I am making a formal complaint that this is happening. I consider it to be outrageous.