Vol. 436 No. 4
6 Mrs. Doyle asked the Minister for the Environment whether there is an officer in his Department with responsibility for liaising between his Department and the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht in relation to the spending of grants on accommodation roads, boithre áise, in Gaeltacht areas.
8 Mr. Molloy asked the Minister for the Environment if he will give details of the main sources of funding for the repair of local accommodation roads; if it is proposed to introduce criteria for a prioritised waiting list for grants available from his Department for this purpose; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 6 and 8 together.
The maintenance of accommodation roads is the responsibility of the individuals they serve. No grants are provided for that purpose by my Department. However, grants for the construction and improvement of non-public roads are provided, through the local improvements scheme, by my Department. The grants are allocated to the county councils to which the administration of the scheme is devolved, subject to the provisions of the Local Government (Roads and Drainage) Act, 1968 and to general guidelines.
Under the 1968 Act, councils may carry out works only by way of agreements with the landowners concerned. The guidelines encourage each council, when preparing its annual programme of works, to ensure, as far as practicable, that priority is given to projects most requiring attention in the county as a whole. The criteria to be used for this purpose are a matter for individual councils and I do not propose to change this arrangement.
Funds are provided separately by the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht for the improvement of non-public roads in Gaeltacht areas. The administration of these funds is a matter for the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht.
Are the needs of the Gaeltacht areas not adequately met by the Minister's Department? Is that the reason for a parallel scheme to look after our accommodation roads? Surely his Department and the local authority are in the best position to identify areas of spending in the relevant functional areas. Why do accommodation roads in Gaeltacht areas need a separate funding scheme apart from those operated by the Department of the Environment? I hope the Minister will agree that the present political patronage now involved in the spending of the Gaeltacht amenity schemes on the boithre áise, the accommodation roads, by the local Fianna Fáil organisation and various Fianna Fáil Ministers could be avoided if all moneys spent on accommodation roads were channelled through his Department and the relevant local authority, who are in the best position to identify the needs. What benefit accrues——
The Deputy's question should not be so long.
——to the Irish language through this political slush fund? Will the Minister refer the scheme and its operation to the Committee of Public Accounts to check that the criteria laid down for it are being met?
I totally reject the unfounded allegations carelessly——
Carefully.
——made by Deputy Doyle. The local improvements scheme is devolved in its entirety to the local councils and all the resources are administered at local level. The Deputy asked me many times in the House——
I refer to the Gaeltacht amenity roads.
Let us hear the Minister's reply.
All the resources in that scheme are a matter for the local authorities to decide and I have no complaints at present in that regard.
Agreed.
The second part of the Deputy's question related to the funds available to my colleague, the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht. There is a small tranche of funds dedicated to——
Of £0.5 million.
It is not £0.5 million, or £0.25 million.
It was £400,000 last year.
Deputy Doyle must desist from interrupting.
It is considerably less than that. Even though it is not my sphere of responsibility, I understand that an investigation following allegations of the type and order made by the Deputy has been carried out and that the allocation of funds by my colleague to the Gaeltacht areas is in exact proportion to the population of those areas. There has been no collusion, no effort on his part or on the part of the Minister of State to do anything other than to be fair to the communities of that area. That is the position and I have no other official complaints in that regard. I am certainly not going to waste the time of this House dealing with hypothetical questions.
I suggest the Minister should see what is going on.
The Minister has given an inaccurate answer. The population ratio is not maintained and the sum allocated last year was £368,000, not less than £250,000, as the Minister stated.
Ceisteanna, le do thoil.
Is the Minister concerned to ensure that a fair system of allocation is applied and that rules be complied with in the case of any funds spent in this fashion by a local authority? As the Minister has confirmed, funding for these roads is from the local improvement scheme, which is fully administered by him, and from the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht which allocates funds to county councils. No rules apply to such funding. I fully support what Deputy Avril Doyle has said and the Minister is not correct in rejecting her allegation. A political slush fund is being operated in the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht——
We are having statements rather than questions.
Is the Minister aware that a political slush fund is being operated in the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht and that clientelism is the main criterion in the allocation of funds?
The Deputy has merely invented that.
Is the Minister aware that these funds seem to be allocated purely to the Fianna Fáil Party and that there is no accountability to the taxpayer as to the criteria applied in the allocation of these moneys?
Again I reject these allegations. This is a matter that comes under the responsibility of another Minister.
Local authorities are the responsibility of the Minister for the Environment.
I have not had the opportunity, nor is it my responsibility, to look at all these statistics. Down the years Galway fared considerably better from this fund than did other Gaeltacht regions and the fund is now being allocated on a fairer basis nationally.
Does the Minister accept the concerns expressed across the party divide this afternoon and will he refer this issue to the Committee of Public Accounts? Will he tell the House whether his Cabinet colleague, the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, a Labour Party Minister, is aware and approves of the way this money is spent? Membership of the local Finna Fáil cumann appears to a prerequisite to secure money in Gaeltacht areas.
We are dealing with Priority Questions. I will hear a brief question from Deputy Molloy.
Does the Minister wish to answer Deputy Doyle first?
There are 20 minutes available for priority questions and nearly ten minutes has been spent on these two questions.
Will the Minister refer my question and that of Deputy Molloy to the Committee of Public Accounts?
Is the Minister aware that Department of the Gaeltacht's grants are allocated to local authorities on the basis of the personal selection of the Minister and that no criteria apply?
I am quite sure my colleague, the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, would have no hesitation in carrying out a review of the scheme referred to by Deputy Doyle if that proves necessary, but all the evidence so far indicates it is unnecessary. The schemes operated by Údarás na Gaeltachta are a matter entirely for that body. I am sure the proper consultation process takes place between the Údarás and the relevant Minister.
The Minister——
Deputy Molloy, let us seek to be fair, equitable and just in dealing with priority questions. There are more Deputies involved than the Members concerned in this matter.
The Minister gave wrong information to the House.
If the Deputy believes that is so, there is another way of raising the matter.
Is the Minister aware that Údarás na Gaeltachta has no hand, act or part in this matter? We are referring to county councils who come under the responsibility of the Department of the Environment.
I have indicated to the House on numerous occasions that from the opportunity I had, brief though it was, to consider this scheme, which is the responsibility of another Minister, and from investigations carried out, the expenditure is properly authenticated.
The Minister should refer the matter to the Committee of Public Accounts.
It must not have been much of an examination.
