asked the Minister for the Environment if he will outline the type of grants he proposes to make available under the amenity grants scheme from the national lottery in 1990; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions Oral Answers. - Amenity Grants.
6.
I have already outlined in my replies to Questions Nos. 135 of 1 November 1989 and 151 of 28 November 1989 the arrangements which will apply to applications under the new amenities recreational facilities grants scheme, 1990. The aim of the scheme is to assist in the carrying out of projects of an amenity, recreational, leisure or environmental improvement nature, other than projects which are primarily of a commercial nature.
Has the Minister examined the situation where a number of State authorities, including local authorities, are involved in the preparation of the schemes, to be more precise, the local authority draw up the scheme, and FÁS and the local employment agency are involved in other aspects of it? Is there any possibility that in these schemes a number of local authorities, because of their knowledge of the employment figures and the fact that they occasionally employ temporary staff, will be allowed more leeway to get on with the schemes rather than waiting for other agencies to be involved as well?
It could be considered. I cannot remember the exact figures but between the Department of the Environment and the Department of Education there are about 3,500 applications in hand at the moment and they have all been returned to the local authorities. To satisfy all would require about £130 million or £140 million, and I have £5.5 million to satisfy the demand. Following these submissions from the local authorities, it is not going to be easy to satisfy everybody. I will take on board what the Deputy said but I think there will be no great need for that because the amount of money is too small to satisfy the demand.
I am very aware the amount of money is small this year, but will the Minister assure the House that the local Fianna Fáil Cumainn will not be involved in the decision making process?
Let us move on to Question No. 7.
A Deputy
That is a legitimate question.
I would like to hear the answer.
Deputy Spring knows well that the local authority members will have a say in these matters and I expect some suggestions will come from the various political parties; but eventually when they make their submissions the Department will do the final assessment and decide which schemes should be funded. I would like to get it done as early as I can next year so that they will have the advantage of the good weather.
I welcome that.
Now we know why the Minister wants to postpone the local elections.
I am not on record as having said that but I understand the Deputy and some of his friends share that view.
It is relevant if they are giving out goodies.
Some of his best supporters might be otherwise engaged at that time of the year.
Deputy Quinn seems to have an obsession with the local elections.
Can the Minister confirm that, as there are in excess of £100 million worth of applications at present and he has only £5.5 million to allocate, it will be left to his discretion, regardless of what individual local authorities say, which groups are allocated funds? Is the method now being put in place of the allocation of these grants totally contrary to the recommendations of the all-party working groups on the method of allocating lottery funds to which all parties in this House were signatories?
I said that is the sum total of the applications we have in hand and the amount.
It may be a large number of people.
It may be because a number of applications now go direct to local authorities. The local authorities may decide to scrap all those and not accept them for recommendations, so we would end up with a different situation.
Is the Minister aware that Dublin Corporation sanctioned £8.5 million applications to the Department? How is he going to work out what moneys are allocated to each local authority?
I cannot say until we see what happens after the submissions come in. I can say Dublin County Council and Corporation did very well out of the last allocation made by the Minister for the Environment.
Not as well as Mayo.
How is the Minister going to decide between 3,500 applications which involve applications mostly from local community organisations where the amount required to satisfy the applications is 25 times the amount he has to allocate? Would it not be better for him to allocate block grants to local authorities and let them in turn allocate the money to the various groups and decide priorities?
The Deputy has expressed the kind of difficulties the Minister faces in these matters.
A Deputy
He will face them if he authorises the local authorities to dispense the money.
The Minister wants to distribute the largesse to the strains of a pipe band walking up Castlebar main street.
We do not have a pipe band in Castlebar. We have an excellent town brass band.