Bertie Ahern
Ceist:3 Mr. B. Ahern asked the Taoiseach the public investment funds, if any, provided in 1997 for the purpose of carrying out capital improvement projects on the islands. [2151/97]
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Offshore Islands.
Éamon Ó Cuív
Ceist:4 Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Taoiseach the plans, if any, he has in 1997 to ensure that necessary infrastructure is provided on the offshore islands; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2730/97]
I propose to answer Questions Nos. 3 and 4 together.
Funding for capital improvement projects on offshore islands is available under various schemes operated by a number of Departments as part of their responsibilities for specific areas of policy. The sum of £1.75 million is available from the Department of the Taoiseach Vote for capital projects on islands. At least £1.3 million has been allocated for marine works on Tory Island, funded from the Vote of the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht. Under the funding allocations made by my Department, non-Gaeltacht islands are in receipt of grants for access and infrastructural development for the first time. Capital improvement projects on islands may be funded from other Departments' programmes, subject to normal selection processes. As these programmes are project-led, it is not possible to say exactly what the final allocation will be for capital projects on islands in 1997.
The Interdepartmental Co-ordinating Committee on Island Development, which I chair, coordinates the response of Departments in respect of the economic and social development of the offshore islands, in accordance with the recommendations of the islands report which was published last year.
In line with the recommendations of the report, new mechanisms have been put in place whereby access and infrastructural projects for islands are selected and prioritised at a local level by the islands committees of the relevant local authorities. These prioritised projects are assessed by the interdepartmental co-ordinating committee, thus ensuring that the most effective use is made of available funding. As well as carrying over funding of approximately £0.75 million from 1996, £1 million is being made available from my Department towards the costs of infrastructural projects on the offshore islands in 1997. The relevant local authorities have submitted lists of proposed infrastructural projects for their islands. On completion of assessments by the interdepartmental co-ordinating committee I hope to be in a position to allocate funding from the £1 million available towards the cost of these projects.
Last year I approved nearly £600,000 for priority projects to develop access services to offshore islands. Funding has also been put in place this year to ensure the completion of these projects.
A number of questions arise from the reply. Will the Minister of State indicate how much of the special allocation of £1 million he told me in reply to questions tabled last year he would allocate to the islands was spent during 1996?
Approximately £170,000 was spent.
Given the major lack of infrastructure on the islands and the crying need for a range of infrastructural measures, why was only £170,000 of the £1 million allocated by the House for the islands spent during the year for which that sum was passed? Can the Minister of State give an adequate explanation why island communities were not given the opportunity to use that money during the year?
Deputy Ahern knows full well that capital projects take some time to gestate. As a former Minister for Finance, he is well aware of the amount of capital he pulled back from Departments and of underspending in them during his time in office. Underspending in a Department is not a new phenomenon. A new structure was proposed and it took some time to co-ordinate work with islanders who put forward the proposals and the island committees of the county councils, some of which were slow to set up committees.
Weather is also a concern on islands. Bad weather interferes with the progress of projects. A Dublin Deputy would be well insulated from that, but those of us who come from the west coast know all about it. We frequently have to endure very bad weather conditions.
The timing of capital projects is important for island ventures. Most of the proposals put forward for which £600,000 was allocated this year will be completed early this year. I was successful in ensuring that the £600,000 allocated last year was carried forward to this year. That was a major achievement.
I am facing a time factor. I will proceed to other business in two minutes' time. I want to facilitate Deputies offering, Deputies Bertie Ahern, Ó Cuív who tabled Question No. 4 and Deputies McDaid and Molloy. In accordance with the procedures of this House I will proceed to deal with priority questions at 3.15 p.m. Can the Deputies help me in that regard?
We are grateful to the Chair. Eighty two per cent of the allocation to the islands for 1996 was not spent. The Minister of State, Deputy Carey, was probably touring the world that year and did not know what was happening on the islands, but he will recall it was quite a good summer. Surely there were plenty of projects on which to spend the money allocated. It is unheard of that 82 per cent of the funding for a capital project on infrastructural developments was not spent. I cannot recall that ever happening in any Department.
I respectfully suggest that the Deputies whom I am anxious to facilitate put brief questions and that the Minister of State reply to them briefly. I call Deputy Ó Cuív.
Will the Minister of State agree that the gestation period for the allocation of money to the islands could be compared to the gestation period of an elephant in that it has been allocated rather slowly. It took three years to produce the report——
A brief question, please.
At that time we presumed the Department would have worked out a list of programmes.
I am still awaiting a question.
Has the Department asked the county councils for their proposals for the expenditure of £100 million in 1997?
Will the Department focus on islands other than those off the coast, such as Inch Island in Lough Swilly, which was hit by a storm in 1991?
I am disappointed Deputy Ahern has left the Chamber. He has adopted a trivial approach to the islands. When he visited Westport some time ago he said he would get rid of the Minister with responsibility for the west and have nothing to do with islands. I am the first Minister of State who has been given special responsibility for their islands. I have put in place an agreed structure for their development. It was difficult and it took some time to reach agreement on a new formal structure with the islanders, county councillors and various Departments of State but Rome was not built in a day. As I said in reply to an earlier question, £1 million was allocated to the islands last year——
It was not spent.
——£170,000 of that was paid out legitimately and £600,000 was put aside and carried forward to this year. A major project is the building of Pontoon Pier on Clear Island.
I must proceed to priority questions.
The Minister of State did not answer my question.
That is the end of questions to the Taoiseach. I am proceeding in accordance with the procedures of this House. I indicated to the Members time and again that I would proceed to priority questions.
I have not had enough time to answer them.
I asked for brevity as well.
I was brief.
I did not get an answer about funding for the other islands.
The Minister of State should appreciate the difficulty of the Chair in seeking to carry out the procedures of the House. I am proceeding to priority questions to the Minister for Equality and Law Reform.
This is a poor system. I have waited a half hour to hear the reply to Question No. 3 and I did not get a chance to ask a supplementary question on it.