I am glad to hear the Minister say that he is prepared to come to the House and ask for further money, if it should become necessary and I take it that the amount here is only a token amount, pending the applications coming in. As everybody knows, building in the Gaeltacht has been at a standstill for years. The House made special provision under the Local Government Act in respect of houses in rural Ireland outside the Gaeltacht, but the Gaeltacht was completely forgotten, and, as I say, building has been at a standstill there for years. I think that this amendment of the Act would need to be advertised so that people will know that it has been amended and that the new grants are now available. That is the first thing that should be done.
Two matters have been mentioned which should be settled forth with. One is the matter of inspectors interrogating people as to their proficiency in Irish. I understood that the Gaeltacht was a geographical area, that, irrespective of whether Irish, English, French or Italian was spoken there, the qualification was that the applicant resided in the Fíor-Ghaeltacht, and I should like the Minister to give a definite assurance on the point, because otherwise it would mean throwing a spanner into the works which would entirely destroy the scheme.
The second matter is that referred to by Deputy Bartley with regard to the inspector raising the question of what will happen in the future to the holding occupied by the applicant. I do not think the inspector should interfere in that matter at all. It is a matter for the Department itself as to the title of the site on which the house is to be built at the time the application is made. The future may be left to look after itself. We are a long time awaiting the rearrangement of these holdings, the settlement of rundales and so on. Some of us have got very old listening to it and some others who are young will be much older before it is completed. Surely it is futile to suggest that an inspector or the Department should raise such points because the scheme could not go ahead on that basis at all. It was originally intended as a handy scheme to enable people who had not the means that other people have to build houses, and, while it was in operation, it was a great success. These fellows who had been in Scotland and in England working as builders' labourers built houses and made a very good job of them. They built these houses with granite which was available in their districts and I think that every facility should be given to them and that no question of what will happen in the future should be raised now.
It should be laid down definitely that the Fíor-Ghaeltacht is a geographical entity and that no question of the language spoken arises. If we begin to have these inquests, we will have all these inquests about the £5 grant, but it is not at all on the same footing. The children receive £5 for speaking Irish and coming from a home where Irish is spoken, while this is a matter of houses for the Fíor-Ghaeltacht. There are, as Deputy Palmer said, cases of marriage between a man in the Fíor-Ghaeltacht and a girl who has been working in England, Scotland or in the Galltacht areas, but love does not draw a boundary between the Fíor-Ghaeltacht, the Breac-Ghaeltacht and the Galltacht. That is not the way it operates, and it would be unfortunate if the scheme were to be held up because of a petty point like that. The Fíor-Ghaeltacht is a geographical entity and anybody in the area who is prepared to build a house should have our good wishes.
Many houses have been built in the non-Gaeltacht areas for the past four years, but house building has been at a complete standstill in the Fíor-Ghaeltacht. That is a bad state of affairs because, when people get into the habit of not doing something, it takes time to get them going again and you want four, five or six people in a parish to set an example so that the machine can be got going again. It is a machine which is completely dead in the Gaeltacht because the House forgot about it when the Local Government Act was being amended and obviously these people could not face up to the expense of building a house on a grant of £80. The Minister should give these people who are prepared to build houses every opportunity possible to do so. A lot was done, but much more remains to be done and the only way to get it done is by putting as few impediments as possible in their way.
I do not know whether these areas know that this Act has been amended. The inspectors cannot be expected to go around the laneways telling the people that increased grants are available. Something else must be done to bring it to their notice and a very suitable way would be by means of a circular to the clergy of all denominations in these areas which could be read out on Sunday. That is done with regard to other matters, such as tree planting and so on, and I am sure that the various clergymen would not object to doing it. Almost certainly, the Minister will require more money before the end of this year and I am sure he will tell these people that all the money they require will be made available when it is required.