Vol. 345 No. 11
asked the Minister for the Environment the amount of money due to Roscommon County Council under the following headings: (1) payment of council loans for the erection or purchase of dwelling houses; (2) reconstruction loans for houses; (3) loans under the Housing Finance Agency; and (4) disabled persons grants.
281.
asked the Minister for the Environment if he is aware that cheques to the value of £630,000 are at present made out, and held by Roscommon County Council since 16 August 1983 pending the payment of moneys from his Department; if he is aware of the grave hardship caused to applicants in County Roscommon for SDA loans who are being charged very high interest rates for bridging finance as a result of delays in making the payment by his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 280 and 281 together.
In the course of the usual review of allocations carried out towards the end of each year, it became apparent that Roscommon County Council were holding about £600,000 in loan payments pending the availability of additional funds. I have recently notified the council of a revised allocation for 1983 which I am satisfied will be adequate to meet all payments which the council expect to make before the end of the year. The council now have a balance of £1.07 million from the Local Loans Fund for the payment this year of local authority house purchase, construction and improvement loans and supplementary grants (including disabled persons grants). The bulk of this amount will be advanced to the council within the next few days and the balance on receipt of the necessary "draw" application.
The operation of the Housing Finance Agency loan scheme is a matter for the agency themselves who have full responsibility for providing funds to individual local authorities to pay loans.
