asked the Minister for the Environment if he will make funds available to Cork Corporation to allow them to issue loans for housing under the SDA scheme.

An initial capital allocation of £700,000 was made to Cork Corporation in respect of the payment of local authority housing loans and grants in the six month period ended on 30 June 1980. This allocation is funded from the internal capital resources generated by the local authority with the balance being issued from the Local Loans Fund.

Because of the greatly increased demand for loan payments which followed on the increase in the loan and income limits last January, the needs of each authority operating the schemes since the end of June have been assessed monthly and payment made on that basis. At 30 September, the corporation's expenditure, including incoming debit balance, on the loan and grant schemes was £1,280,000. Internal receipts generated by the corporation at that date were in the region of £570,000 and a total of £530,000 was issued from the Local Loans Fund to bring total receipts to £1,100,000. On October 24 a further instalment of £170,000 issued to the corporation from the Local Loans Fund, and a further sum will be made available before the end of the year.

Available resources do not permit the issue of additional funds from the Local Loans Fund to the corporation but these amounts, together with the further amounts arising from internal resources, will ensure that payments on maturing loans will not be delayed unreasonably.