I am disappointed at the way we are being restricted this morning but I will not dwell on that point. I have mentioned in this House before that the Government have been very complacent as regards providing resources for the Nuclear Energy Board. I am glad even at this late stage that some money is to be provided for them although I am disappointed that that money is being taken from the FEOGA western aid electrification scheme. The Minister is robbing Peter to pay Paul because this FEOGA package is one of the most successful schemes ever to be operated in the west. Under this Supplementary Estimate we are taking money from that scheme as part of the Department's policy of giving money to the Nuclear Energy Board. While I welcome the fact that the board at long last have received money, it is a disappointment to see it coming from this source.
I have raised in this House with the Minister on a number of occasions the question of making the FEOGA scheme more flexible. It was a flexible scheme up to 1983 when, after consultations with the EC, the Department told us they had to restrict benefit from the scheme to certain categories of people. Any son or daughter who was building a house in a rural area would not automatically receive benefit from the scheme as there were problems with off farm income and where the young person building the house was not the owner of the land. The Minister should tell us if he had any success in his efforts to have the scheme made more flexible and if more money will be provided. I note in the Estimate that money is being taken out of the FEOGA package and it is my view that one of the reasons for doing that is that the scheme is impracticable and not flexible enough for western areas.
I note from figures I obtained from the Department that 1,444 applicants benefited in 1984, that 699 farmers benefited in 1985 and that up to the end of October this year only 339 applicants had been approved. I note that only half of the money provided in 1986 has been taken up, leaving £711,000 available still. Will the Minister indicate if that money will be taken up or carried forward to 1987? The fact that so few applicants are being approved is an indication that the scheme is too restrictive, as many western Deputies have been claiming. We need to allow more people into the scheme. I suggest that local authorities involved in building houses in rural areas should be allowed to benefit from the scheme. It is sad to think that this year fewer people than last year will benefit under the scheme and that at the end of 1986 money will be left over.
When the ESB communicate with people about their eligibility, or otherwise, under the scheme they mention the great reductions they are offering on immersion heaters and cookers, but there is little point in offering those attractions to people who do not have an electricity supply. I would like to see the quotations being reduced. The scheme operated up to 1983 was very successful but the changes introduced are too restrictive.
I understand that the ESB who are using milled peat in their power stations in the midlands are transporting it from Roscommon and Galway areas. Local people are disappointed that that milled peat is not used in the manufacture of briquettes at the factory at Derryfadda. I understand that 200,000 tonnes, almost all the milled peat harvested in that area, has been transported to the midlands. I am not blaming the Minister for that decision because it was the present Minister for Finance who told us in 1983 that the Government would not be forced into making a hasty decision on the Derryfadda project.
Three years have elapsed since that statement and it is disappointing that a decision has not yet been announced although £15.4 million was provided for it in the Book of Estimates in 1984. However, of that figure only £4.6 million was spent on the project. We have not heard anything about that project since. There does not appear to be any enthusiasm in the Cabinet for the project. We have been told that there is little likelihood of EC aid being made available for it but I wonder if the Government have applied for such assistance. We have been told by the Government that an IDA grant of £3 million for the project has been approved but that approval was in principle only. There is a shortage of briquettes throughout the country, particularly in western areas, and the Western Health Board who organise a free fuel scheme are finding it difficult to get briquettes, one of the most popular types of fuel among elderly people. Will the Minister consult with that health board about the shortage of supply?
The 1984 annual report of Bord na Móna stated that the expenditure on the proposed briquette factory at Derryfadda had amounted to £29.5 million up to 1 March 1985 and that should be sufficient to encourage the Government to proceed with the project. The Irish Transport and General Workers' Union have said that the employment envisaged in the construction stage would be 75 jobs rising to 180, and that the factory in full production would employ 110 people or a yearly average of 300 jobs on the bog and in the factory. Is it not economic madness not to proceed with that project, bearing those figures in mind? The ITGWU state that the two year delay has cost £3½ million so far and that, if the delay is allowed to continue for a further year, the cost will rise to almost £4 million.
While the Government are delaying in making a decision on this project, they are permitting imports of lignite briquettes from Germany. The Government have not bothered to apply to the EC for assistance to help the board exploit our peat resources and process peat briquettes. I hope the Minister will have some news about the review his predecessor undertook to carry out.
Like other western Deputies I am concerned about the hasty decisions and reactions in the past two years of Bord na Móna on proposed lay-offs. Last year the board said they would be laying off 800 people but that decision was deferred. This year the board announced that they would be laying of 2,300 people, but we have been told in the past few weeks that that figure will be reduced to 400. Instead of laying off workers Bord na Móna should be taking them on. It appears that the board do not have any contingency fund or plan to deal with problems that arise from poor weather conditions. In my area the board proposed to lay off 20 people at Derryfadda in addition to the 100 laid off last year. I understand that they proposed to lay off 47 people at the Attymon station. In effect, that would have meant that the station would be almost closed with only five people to maintain it.
Those lay-offs are occurring at a time when there is a need to develop bogs at Derryfadda, Cluain Caoin and Derrydoo. It concerns me that, in addition to laying off workers, there is no commitment to develop our bogs. The Minister will have to give a direction to Bord na Móna to continue that development. The Board own those bogs but we should insist on a commitment from them to develop them.
One of the important factors in the area of energy is the question of competitiveness, particularly among business people. The price of electricity to industrialists here is 30 per cent higher than that charged to industrialists elsewhere in the EC. It is time the Minister announced the proposed reduction in ESB prices.
