Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for his comments on the central heating scheme. It was introduced in the middle of last year. Of the 110,000 local authority houses I mentioned, approximately 45,000 do not have central heating. We introduced this scheme whereby the Department pays 80% and the local authority must provide 20%. It is up to the local authority to provide the money. We spent our allocation last year as it is a popular scheme. As to the Deputy's suggestion that it be front-loaded, it is up to individual local authorities to decide where it is installed . Let us see if the bids this year are for greater amounts than we are offering. We must get value for money for the taxpayer. There is no point in us sending out the message to central heating installers that Santa Claus has come. They are doing very well as it is. A considerable amount of money has been provided this year.

A new standard form has been introduced. I acknowledge that it is rather long but one tries to cover all bases when introducing a standard form. It will give us a considerable amount of additional information, much of which will not apply to any one individual.

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