Austin Deasy
Ceist:29 Mr. Deasy asked the Taoiseach the financial implications, if any, of the deals he made with the Independent Deputies Fox and Healy-Rae and any other Deputies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13724/97]
Written Answers. - Cost of Government Commitments.
Róisín Shortall
Ceist:62 Ms Shortall asked the Taoiseach if he will give details of all commitments given to Deputy Healy-Rae by his Government; the estimated and agreed cost in each case; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14019/97]
Róisín Shortall
Ceist:63 Ms Shortall asked the Taoiseach if he will give details of all commitments given to Deputy Fox by his Government; the estimated and agreed cost in each case; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14020/97]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 29, 62 and 63 together.
As I explained previously, I did not do privileged deals with anybody. Deputies will be aware that there are Government expenditure programmes across the whole range of services that the State provides. In most instances there are plans set out for these programmes.
In the Fianna Fáil/Progressive Democrats programme for Government, there are proposals to increase funding for specific programmes. County roads, education and rural development in particular are areas where the Government intends to allocate extra resources. This will permit the speeding up of certain programmes and the bringing forward of some proposals earlier than planned.
In my discussions with a number of Deputies, they indicated that certain issues are important to them. It would be the intention, over the life of the Government, to deal with most of the issues, many of which will be on local authority plans in any event. There are no proposals to exceed Government planned overall expenditure targets. However, within them we will be addressing areas of neglect which have been highlighted by the general election.