asked the Minister for Finance if accountability for statutory demand increases on local authorities for the Office of Public Works rests in his Department.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - OPW Demands on Local Authorities.
14.
Responsibility for statutory demands on local authorities under the Arterial Drainage Acts, 1945 and 1955 and the Coast Protection Act, 1963, rests with the Commissioners of Public Works.
Is the Minister aware that the percentage increases in most of the statutory demands on local authorities are much higher than the annual increases in the normal allowances made by the Department of the Environment to local authorities and that this is placing an unfair and undue burden on them?
I do not accept that. We are a statutory body and we have the function of collecting the moneys spent on drainage schemes and coastal protection work. The amounts are estimated some time after the middle of the year for the following year and include any shortfall that may have arisen in the previous year. For the past couple of years we have been limited as to the extent by which we can increase the amounts. Last year we were limited to 6 per cent while in the previous year the figure was 5 per cent. The increases are based on the previous year's experience which is different from basing them on the previous year's estimate.
Having regard to the financial state of the local authorities, is this not a most unsatisfactory arrangement? Is it not time that the Office of Public Works considered all the circumstances and realised how unfair these statutory demands are?
Until such time as the law may be changed, we are bound to collect the money. As a member of a local authority I am well aware of their problems; but we have a statutory obligation, first, to maintain the rivers — we can be prosecuted for not doing so — and, secondly, we are bound to collect the cost involved from the local authorities.
Would the Minister not agree that prior to the abolition of rates there was a separate charge in respect of drainage works and that therefore, moneys that were collected in that way are no longer available to local authorities? This leaves them in a very serious position. It is time that the charges were withdrawn completely and met by the Exchequer because county councils are not able to meet their obligations in that regard.
I am not in the business of advising local authorities as to what they should or should not do but, as I have pointed out, the Office of Public Works have responsibility for maintaining rivers and subsequently for collecting the cost involved from the local authorities. I should be happy if there were a change in that way.
Is the Minister satisfied that the moneys paid by each local authority are spent in that local authority area in a period of years? I take the point that there may be a balance from year to year.
The money is spent in the local authority area from which is is collected.
Is the Minister satisfied that there is no question of the Office of Public Works collecting moneys from any local authority that are not spent in that local authority area?
In many cases the board are experiencing difficulty in collecting the moneys that are due to them in this way.
Has the Office of Public Works expenditure in this regard exceeded the estimates in recent years?
We can spend only within the limits of the estimates. We must be very strict in that regard because, unlike local authorities, we do not have overdraft facilities. We must limit our spending in accordance with our estimates.
The remaining questions will appear on next Tuesday's Order Paper.