Committee Reports > List of Committees > Dáil > 1937 > Committee of Public Accounts > Report - Appropriation Accounts 1935 - 1936

APPENDIX VI.

ARTERIAL DRAINAGE—SAVING ON SUB-HEAD.

Memorandum in further explanation of the difference between Grant and Expenditure in Sub-head J (2)—Arterial Drainage (Public Works and Buildings Vote, No. 11).

The provision of £40,000 in 1935-36 included the sum of £20,550 for new schemes. The expenditure charged to the sub-head in connection with new schemes was £3,092. With the exception of £54 the entire saving of £17,512 was therefore effected on the provision for new schemes, and the explanation given in the Appropriation Account was “saving due principally to the fact that certain anticipated schemes did not reach the state at which operations could be commenced”.

The promotion of a Drainage Scheme begins with the submission of a petition to a County Council; the proposals in the petition, if acceptable to that body, are examined in detail from the engineering and financial aspects by the Commissioners of Public Works, and no scheme can be prepared until the Minister for Finance and the Local Authority concerned have agreed to make such free grants from State and local funds as are deemed sufficient to render the proposals economic in so far as they effect occupiers of lands proposed to be drained or improved. When the Commissioners of Public Works are satisfied that the necessary free grants will be forthcoming the scheme is prepared and placed on exhibition for acceptance or rejection by the occupiers of the lands. Should the requisite majority assent, the scheme has reached the stage when the question of making provision for grants arises. The estimates are prepared in autumn and are based upon the information then available as to the probability of works reaching the progress stage during the following financial year.

Certain contingencies exist which render it impossible to forecast with any degree of accuracy the period which will elapse between the adoption of a scheme by the occupiers and the commencement of works. The Public Inquiry into objections which follows a favourable vote on the scheme may result in little or no alteration to the scheme, in which case confirmation of the scheme and commencement of operations take place with little delay; on the other hand, it may disclose unforeseen difficulties, as, for instance, complaints as to inadequacy of proposed works, existence of unsuspected water, fishing and other rights, etc., necessitating revision to a greater or less extent of the engineering and financial provisions, which may in turn entail further negotiations with the Minister for Finance and the Local Authority for increased contributions. The delay occasioned in such cases, depending as it does on factors outside the control of the Commissioners, can only be anticipated with varying degrees of approximation.

(Signed) J. CONNOLLY,

Chairman,

Office of Public Works.

22nd July, 1937.