asked the Minister for the Environment if he will make additional finance available to Laois County Council for the purpose of keeping road-workers in employment and to carry out essential repairs to county roads; and when the additional funding can be provided to enable the council to arrange its work programme for 1985 and to avoid paying unecessary interest on borrowing.
Written Answers. - Laois Road Grants.
457.
There are no funds at my disposal which would enable me to make additional allocations to local authorities for this purpose. I might mention however that the block grant which may be used to supplement Laois County Council's own resource expenditure on the improvement of county roads, shows an increase this year of 17.4 per cent over 1984.