I note the Minister of State, Deputy Currie, is also taking this debate and I will be brief. The Minister has had a long day and I do not wish to overly prolong it. However, I make a case for Castleblaney Urban District Council. Senator Gallagher is not in the House but she would be interested in associating herself with this debate. This also applies to the public representatives from County Monaghan. We held a meeting last week with the members of Castleblaney UDC and Dr. Collins and they put a strong case forward.
They are aggrieved that the amount of the rates support grant notified to the council for next year is approximately £42,000. The highest figure the council ever received was £74,000 in 1985. If one considers the time span of ten years, that figure was almost twice the amount notified for next year. This indicates why the members are aggrieved. Various reasons were put forward as to why the figure is so low, one of which is that since 1985 the figures decreased on an annual basis up to a couple of years ago. Increases now are small and the council has difficulty maintaining services and modernising the town.
Castleblaney is a small town with a population of approximately 2,000. The Acting Chairman and the Minister of State are familiar with Castleblaney as they pass through it when driving to County Donegal and the North. You, Sir, probably stop at the Glencarn. You make it known that you are a Donegal man and get many people from that area calling in when they are passing through.
Castleblaney is a small town which has suffered incredible job losses since the 1970s. There was a bookbinding plant there in 1974 which lasted for a couple of years before folding. There was also a furniture plant opposite the Glencarn which was a big employer, but it closed down in the 1980s. No substantial industries have come to the town in the meantime and therefore the wage base is very low.
Castleblaney is situated just two and a half miles from the Border and three miles from Culloville in County Armagh. In the 1980s Castleblaney's business community suffered when townspeople wisely went North to buy their goods because price differentials were so great. In the meantime the town has managed to scrape together £100,000 to match IFI funding for phase 1 of an urban renewal project on the main street. It is now faced with trying to find funds to match phase 2 of the development, but there is truly no way they can come up with that money. The case has been made as to why Castleblaney should have an increase in the rate support grant. Castleblaney Urban District Council was meeting today to try to strike a rate for the third time in recent weeks. They have a choice of putting a very big burden on the ratepayers in the form of charges or they can budget for a deficit, but they are very responsible people and do not want to do that.
The Minister should give members of Castleblaney UDC and the townspeople some hope that the very small rate support grant, which is about half what it was ten years ago, will be substantially increased. The townspeople should have an opportunity to use all the possibilities that have opened up to try and develop Castleblaney into a thriving town again. It will need a lot of work to achieve that. I look forward to the Minister's response.