Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for his comments. He asked whether money is in place. Money has been earmarked for this scheme. As every Deputy in the House knows, this process does not involve sending a cheque to a local authority, it involves telling the authority that it can draw down a certain amount of money after it has finalised the relevant scheme. That is how moneys are made available. Money is available to the scheme in question in the same way as it was available to the 399 schemes throughout the country which are being progressed, including those in Sligo, Dublin, Cork, Waterford and Bray. I do not want to get involved in the blame game because it will not help to solve the problem in Galway. Other local authorities have drawn down the funds they have needed. I will speak tomorrow about how the local authority in this instance can draw down the money that is needed to get this scheme under way.

I did not mean to interrupt Deputy Sargent in any way when he was arguing that Galway City Council needs more staff. I assured the local authorities late last year that a mechanism was available to them if they had issues relating to staffing. I refer to the method of capitalising staff, in effect, for the building of particular schemes. I will talk to the authorities in Galway about that tomorrow. I do not want to mislead the House in any way by suggesting that I intend to lift the recruitment embargo or the cap on staffing levels, which are in place for good reasons. We are all familiar with the excessive staffing levels in some sectors of the public service. We are not getting value for money in such areas.

I agree with the point Deputy Sargent made about the Water Services Bill 2003. This important legislation has been around for a long time. As the Deputy knows, it has been the subject of lengthy discussions in this House. I will push the Bill over the hurdle and get it through with the co-operation of the Deputy, his party and the other parties.

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