asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health if his attention has been called to a case where, by the decision of a district justice, three brothers were sent to an industrial school in Drogheda, on the grounds that no accommodation could be found for the family in Dublin, although it was stated that the father was in receipt of sufficient money to pay for a house if he could find one; if, further, in connection with the same case, a letter had been received and handed into court from the Housing Section, Dublin Corporation, to the effect that daily requests had been received by the said Housing Section from the Dangerous Buildings Department, requesting that tenants be transferred from dangerous premises to flats, and that the result of such requests was that there were not sufficient vacancies even for these urgent cases; if he will state whether he has procured or will procure a report as to the number of premises in Dublin declared to be dangerous dwellings; and what he proposes to do in connection with the family in question and other families accommodated in such dangerous dwellings.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Housing Accommodation Difficulty (Dublin).
I have read a Press report of the case referred to. When the Deputy asks what I propose to do in connection with the family in question and other families accommodated in dangerous dwellings he must know that the responsibility does not rest with me. I would remind him that the provision of dwellings for the working classes in Dublin is primarily a matter for the Corporation of Dublin. The corporation, with assistance and encouragement of the Government, provided in the past five years over 4,600 new dwellings, of which 900 were provided in the past year. At the end of September last, there were 958 houses in course of construction, and since then the corporation have entered into a contract for the building of 204 dwellings, while tenders have been invited for the erection of 207 additional houses. Plans have been prepared in advance, and sites developed to enable them to proceed with a programme for the erection of several thousand dwellings as soon as conditions with regard to materials are favourable.
There are 53 houses regarded as dangerous which are at present occupied by 126 families, so that if the assumption underlying the Deputy's question is that such families should have absolute priority for tenancies of corporation houses—a matter about which there is room for some disagreement—it would appear to have been well within the corporation's competence to deal with the problem in the past, as well as in the near future.
In connection with the specific case referred to by the Deputy, I have caused inquiries to be made. I am informed that the man in question was discharged from the Army last May with a gratuity of £59 and a pension of just £30 a year, that he has a wife and four children and that his income is £2 9s. 4d. a week, all of it derived from public funds. It would appear that this man, his wife and children have been in the Dublin Union, where the parents and the youngest child still are. The three children were found by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in Lord Edward Street on the 10th October, 1945, and were taken by them before the justice with a view to having them committed to an industrial school on the grounds that they had not a home. From the Press report, it appears that they were committed to a home in Drogheda. Relatives of the family, some of them close relatives holding a house from the corporation, were approached by the relieving officer with the request that they take in some of the children, but they refused to do so.