asked the Minister for Finance if he will state (a) whether he is now in a position to give details in relation to the Government's decision to provide £1,000,000 for the relief of unemployment, (b) the manner in which such sum will be allocated to each local authority and on what conditions allocations will be made, (c) the amount which will be paid to each authority before Christmas, and (d) from what source the Government will obtain the money.

asked the Minister for Finance if he will give particulars of the allocation of the £1,000,000 for expenditure on public projects announced by the Government on 23rd November, 1956.

I propose, with the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, to take, with part (a) of this question, the similar question by Deputy MacBride on to-day's Order Paper (No. 30).

(a) As the Deputies are aware, details were announced on the 23rd instant of the apportionment of the sum of £1,000,000 which the Government decided to make available for expenditure on certain works during the remainder of the current financial year. With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to circulate in the Official Report a tabular statement of the details as announced.

The following is the statement:—

(b) Where local authorities are concerned with projects to which the money in question is to be applied the allocations to each local authority will be made in the manner and subject to the conditions applicable to previous similar allocations.

(c) The time at which payment from such allocations will be made to a local authority concerned will depend, as heretofore, on the progress made by the local authority within the purposes for which the allocations have been made.

(d) As already indicated by the Government, the sum of £1,000,000 will not involve any net excess on the provision already made, under the authority of the Oireachtas, for public services in the current financial year. The money is being made available by modification of the reductions in public expenditure which the Government had decided upon earlier this year.

Would the Minister state whether in the statement issued by him to the Press published on the 24th November he said that it was contemplated that £1,000,000 was to be made available to the E.S.B. for the purposes of rural electrification? Would the Minister state whether that is to be by way of grant or loan?

That money will be advanced to the E.S.B. by the ordinary procedure which is a loan procedure.

Am I to understand that the Minister is dealing only with section (a) of the question?

Sections (b), (c) and (d) are dealt with in the reply.

The Minister has stated that £1,000,000 is being made available for productive projects of a public character. Would the Minister agree that the Special Employment Schemes Fund is to be cut by some £150,000 as a result of it? That is an increase in the cuts of the winter relief schemes. Does the Minister not agree that these schemes carried out by the Special Employment Schemes Office are of a constructive nature?

I must look on the allocation of the £1,000,000 as a whole. I hope that the local authorities concerned will be able to select schemes of a reasonably constructive character on the moneys allotted to them.