Vol. 577 No. 4
277 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for the Environment Heritage and Local Government the funding which has been made available from his Department to help persons affected by the landslide in north Mayo; and the help available for these persons. [31466/03]
I refer to the reply to Question No. 343 of 25 November 2003 setting out the assistance available to persons affected by the landslide in north Mayo.
The local government fund general purpose grant for 2004 notified to Mayo County Council last week totals €29,752,341, an increase of €4,421,877, or 17.5%, over the corresponding grant for 2003. My Department has informed the council that this increased level of grant can be used to contribute to the cost in 2004 of carrying out such works as the council considers necessary to prevent a recurrence of the landslide in the north Mayo area. In addition, a sum of €571,000 is being made available to the county council in 2003 towards the cost of repairing damage caused to public roads and bridges in north Mayo as a result of the landslide. I envisage a further allocation to the county council for this purpose under the 2004 non-national roads programme allocations to be announced in January next.
