Vol. 400 No. 9
185 Mr. Nealon asked the Minister for the Environment if he will allocate funds to Sligo County Council and Sligo Corporation to enable them to carry out necessary repairs and refurbishment to old housing stock in their ownership.
186 Mr. Nealon asked the Minister for the Environment if he will allocate funds to Leitrim County Council to enable them to carry out necessary repairs and refurbishment to old housing stock in their ownership.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 185 and 186 together.
The management and maintenance, including repairs, of their dwellings are matters for the local authority and do not require ministerial approval. Such works would be funded by the authority from its own resources, which include their rental income and the revenue portion, 40 per cent, of the proceeds of tenant purchase schemes. Projects under the remedial works scheme, under which a housing authority may carry out major refurbishment of certain estates, come within the Public Capital Programme and are subject to ministerial approval. It is a matter for the housing authority to formulate proposals for such projects and to indicate relative priorities when the proposals are being submitted to the Department.
This year, a sum of £100,000 has been allocated to Sligo Corporation under the remedial works scheme; the apportionment of this allocation between its approved projects is a matter for the corporation. The Department has no record of the receipt of an application under the scheme from Sligo County Council. Following recent discussions between officials of the Department and Leitrim County Council, a formal application under the scheme is awaited from the council.
