Fianna Fáil has been accused of pulling an election stunt over a promise that the Department of the Environment would pay the interest on a county council loan. The loan would be to allow work on the long-awaited inner relief road through Sligo to go ahead this year as scheduled.
A senior official in Sligo County Council told The Irish Times he believed any such arrangement would be "unprecedented" in the State and that it would have implications for other projects delayed because of shortfalls in National Roads Authority funding. He said other local authorities could then seek the same deal and it would amount to government borrowing by a different name.
It would also mean the government paying the higher rate of interest as it would be paying off the council's loan interest rate. Councils do not get the same rates as government. Legally it was the NRA who had to make the decision on funding the road, he added.
Two of Fianna Fáil's election candidates in Sligo/Leitrim, Mr John Ellis and Dr Jimmy Devins, have said publicly they have got assurances from the Minister of the Environment, Mr Dempsey, that interest on the loan will be paid by government.
However, as of yet there has been no written confirmation of this and on Wednesday the council received two letters from the Department seeking further details about the €5 million loan.
This has been described by Fine Gael and an action group lobbying for the road as an attempt to "kick the issue into touch" until after the election.
The idea of the council loan was first raised by Fianna Fáil after the party faced the political fallout of a decision by the NRA in February not to allocate the necessary money to the Sligo road to allow it proceed on schedule.
At the time Sligo Chamber of Commerce issued a statement condemning the government's "phenomenal ignorance" of the town's infrastructural deficiencies.
Mr John Perry, of Fine Gael, who has raised the issue in the Dáil, said yesterday it was "a stunt" and Fianna Fáil wasn't fooling anybody.
Mr Dempsey's reply to him in the Dáil said merely that he was "disposed" towards the request.
Mr Perry said that while other towns developed, Sligo was at "a standstill" because of its chronic traffic problems.
A spokesman for a group lobbying for the road to start on schedule, Mr Ronnie Gillanders, said he was "disgusted" more information was being sought by the Department at this time.
"They are just trying to get the election over without giving a written undertaking to pay the interest or to get the road started," Mr Gillanders said.
A spokesman for Sligo County Council said a request for the interest to be paid was first sent to the Department of the Environment on April 15th on the day the resolution was passed at a council meeting.
On April 30th, the Department asked for a formal request in writing for the Minister's sanction for the raising of the loan, and this was returned on the same day. Two letters received by the council on Wednesday this week from the Department and dated May 3rd and May 7th, requested further information relating to the proposed lending institution, the duration of the loan, the rate of interest, and whether contracts had been placed and the value of these.
Fianna Fáil's Dr Devins said he had no doubt the Department would pay the interest.
He said he had been given "a very solid, verbal" agreement this would happen by both the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, and the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern.
"Once the paperwork is in order, I am sure it will happen," Dr Devins said. He could not say whether this would happen before or after the election, but he had said all along this was "bigger than an election issue" and he was in touch with the Department stressing its importance.
"I have no doubt that the pledge will be honoured," Dr Devins added.