Committee Reports > List of Committees > Dáil > 1955 > Committee of Public Accounts > Report - Appropriation Accounts 1952 - 1953

APPENDIX XVI.

PAYMENT FOR BUILDING MATERIALS SUPPLIED TO GRANTEES UNDER THE HOUSING (GAELTACHT) ACTS, 1929 TO 1953.

Secretary,

Committee of Public Accounts.

At the proceedings of the Committee on the 7th instant I undertook to furnish a note in connection with the practice of the Gaeltacht Services Division in the matter of payment to merchants for building materials supplied to grantees under the Housing (Gaeltacht) Acts, 1929 to 1953.

Section 12 (1) of the Housing (Gaeltacht) Act, 1929, gives the Minister power to make arrangements for facilitating the purchase of materials by grantees. Pursuant to this the Department annually invites through advertisement in the public press, tenders for the supply of building materials to grantees. The firms whose tenders are approved are so notified and the area or areas for which they are appointed as official suppliers are specified.

The grantee is not bound to purchase his materials from the official supplier, but where he does, he may at the request of the supplier, authorise the Department to pay all or portion of the grant direct to the supplier towards the cost of the materials supplied. The Department will then pay the grant, or portion of it, to the supplier as it falls due to the grantee.

The position is that the Department’s function is that of agent for the purpose of obtaining quotations for materials and for the nomination of suppliers. It is not a party to any contract which may subsequently arise from the ordering of material by a grantee from a nominated supplier.

Under the Housing (Gaeltacht) (General) Regulations, 1931, payment of a grant can be made only as the work progresses and it is paid only in respect of work done, as certified by a Housing Inspector. The Department cannot, and never did, make arrangements with any supplier to pay for materials in advance, since to do so would commit it to pay for materials which might not be subsequently used for the purpose for which the grant had been sanctioned under the Acts.

Department of Lands.

28 Deireadh Fómhair, 1954.