asked the Minister for Finance when he expects to be able to indicate to the Dublin Corporation the amount of grant which will be made available in this financial year for special relief works, and if he will state the amount of such grant.

I am not in a position to determine the amount of the grant, if any, to be allocated to the Dublin Corporation for employment schemes until the position with regard to the progress of uncompleted schemes sanctioned in prior years has been clarified. Work schemes, costing approximately £257,000, of which the appropriate State grant is £206,085, were outstanding on the 1st April, 1956. The city manager has been asked for information on this subject and his reply is awaited.

Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that what he has stated now is a terrible thing? Is he not aware that, when grants are allocated, they are not necessarily immediately spent, because a scheme may take a year or 18 months to complete and that because the money has not been spent, no further grant will be made until it has been spent?

Some of these are not started even yet.

Is that the Parliamentary Secretary's excuse for not giving Dublin Corporation any notification of further grants for the relief of unemployment? Is it because grants already allocated have not been spent, due to the fact that they cannot physically be spent until a certain period elapses? Some of the schemes may take 18 months to complete and, consequently, the money cannot be availed of. However, there are other schemes which, if grants are made available, can immediately be put into effect. Is the Parliamentary Secretary now saying that, in Dublin City, the 300 odd men constantly employed on relief schemes can now be sacked?

If they are, the Deputy can accept the main blame, because there is a sum of £257,000 there to be spent. Some of the schemes have not yet even been started. Does the Deputy expect us to allocate more money when that sum of £257,000 is still there?