I was not present for the full speech by Deputy Dr. Brennan last night and came in only for the tail end. I may have got a wrong impression, but the impression I got was that he was rather critical of the Dún Laoghaire Borough Corporation and some of the officials. I agree with the Deputy that there are very many distressing cases regarding housing in Dún Laoghaire and in the Rathdown area, but I can only speak with authority for the Dún Laoghaire Borough area as I am not on the county council. I would like to say, in defence of the officials there, that I am satisfied that we have in Dún Laoghaire as efficient a body of officials, particularly those recently appointed to deal with this question of housing, as any county council or public authority could wish for.
It is true that we are not satisfied with the progress that has been made in housing, nor can any public representative be satisfied while there is one very distressing case left in the particular area for which he serves on the local authority. Briefly, our housing programme in Dún Laoghaire was completely solved as far back as when President Seán T. O'Kelly was Minister responsible for that Department. As I mentioned last year, we had at that time a number of houses at what we considered then very high rents, that is, 15/- a week, for which we found it difficult to get tenants. I would like to explain this to those who wonder why the problem is still such a big one in spite of what I said about having solved it. One explanation is that the population of the Borough of Dún Laoghaire in 1936 was 39,785, while the last census of 1946 showed it to have increased to 44,689, and the latest estimated figure for the borough is 50,000. In other words, we have increased the population of the borough during that period by 10,215 and, therefore, we have created a new problem since the housing problem was solved, as I have mentioned.
Another question which I felt was referred to was the manner in which houses in the borough were allocated. All I have to say is that the present official in charge of this has given eminent satisfaction to everybody and that the system adopted is the most satisfactory system of all.
The medical officer with his assistant makes a thorough examination—and a sympathetic examination, which is a very essential thing, as we have had officials that I personally felt were not sympathetic in their approach to those who were in bad need of housing. We now have an officer with an assistant who has given satisfaction to everybody by the way in which he examines the applicants' present housing conditions and by the sympathy with which he approaches the matter. When he compiles his list of priorities, it is submitted in strict confidence at a housing meeting of the members of the corporation, who with their local knowledge are sometimes able to make suggestions that will alter the priority of allocation. A system of that kind is, in my experience, the only one that will give complete satisfaction. The members of the Dún Laoghaire Borough Corporation are quite satisfied with the official in charge of this problem.
The present problem is that our total requirement of houses is roughly 700. It is estimated that these allocations will be completely made by the summer of 1952. I admit that, to a person who is living in very appalling conditions, it is little consolation to say: "In two years' time, we hope to give you a house." I do not know why it has taken so long to build houses, but I was surprised and impressed by a statement made by Deputy McGrath to-day. All I have to say with reference to that is that if anybody——whether he be a member of a local body or an official of any kind, whether he be a trade union operative or leader—does anything that slows up house building, while even one person is living under conditions such as I myself have knowledge of, that person is acting criminally and there should be no mercy on the part of the Minister if he comes under his control.
There is another side to the problem, that is, that speed is not everything in the building of houses. We have had cases where some contractors have produced them more quickly than others, but it has been discovered that the work is not as well done. To my mind, that is a very bad way to try to solve the problem. To put people into a new house and find after 12 months or two years that the wallpaper will not remain on the walls unless it is nailed there, or that the walls are cracking, or that the floors or the concrete surrounds around the house are sagging, is to my mind something that all officials should take particular care to guard against. That has happened in many cases to my own knowledge. I have seen houses recently completed and only occupied within the last few months in which practically all the woodwork has shrunk to such an extent that although tongued and grooved wood was used for the doors, daylight could be easily seen through the crevices. In other cases, the doors of the hot presses have completely fallen asunder because small nails were used for the battens of those doors. I have also seen houses where gutters, apparently, had no filling in the joints and, on the first rainy day, a considerable amount of damp appeared owing to the pouring of the water down the sides of the houses.
There is another thing I observed, probably due to the rushing of the job, and that is that the builder, with the modern heavy equipment that is used, ploughed up the land around the houses and, when the scheme was completed and the tenants were in possession with certain finishing work to be done such as putting up railings to divide the gardens, the contractor used up all the rubble, including large defective concrete blocks to fill up the ruts in the ground which was eventually handed over to the tenants for gardens. I do not think that that should be tolerated. If tenants are put into new houses, the gardens should be handed over to them in a condition in which, with reasonable labour, they would be able to cultivate them. In some cases which I have recently seen it would be humanly impossible to make a garden unless a considerable amount of money was spent carting away material that, to my mind, should have been carted away by the contractor.
Another thing reported to me only yesterday, and I hope it is not true, is that in certain housing schemes in the county council area of Rathdown mass concrete has been used. I have not had time to check up on that and I only mention it to the Minister in the hope that the information is inaccurate, because any houses I have seen in County Dublin which were built of mass concrete were not at all satisfactory. After a short time cracks appeared in the walls and dampness inside which made the houses quite uncomfortable.
The Minister is aware of one scheme which has been put into operation in Dún Laoghaire. I mention it so that he may encourage the further development of this scheme and give it all possible assistance. To my mind it is an ideal way of solving the housing problem. In the beginning I was thoroughly opposed to it because I thought it would be a complete failure. I saw snags in it which I did not believe could be overcome. I refer to the "build-your-own-house" scheme on which magnificent work has been done. The reason I am so enthusiastic about it is that once the houses are built by the workmen themselves they take a greater pride in them because they are their own property, and the corporation, instead of having to pay for repairs, the cost of which in corporation houses is very high, have an income from the houses by way of rates.
There is another matter to which I should also like to draw the Minister's attention. It is only a small problem and for that reason I hope he will agree to give the concession asked for. In Dún Laoghaire—I suppose the same applies to other districts—we had quite a number of people, who were born and reared there and who, while they were waiting for us to provide them with houses—I have personal knowledge of eight cases—in desperation had to go outside the borough boundary in order to get accommodation in a room or a hovel or a shack.
These people now find themselves in the position that they have not got the residence qualification in the county council area and, if we offered them houses in the Dún Laoghaire area, according to the regulations they are not entitled to be accepted as tenants for a certain class of houses for which grants are given. That is a very small problem but it means a lot to those people. I think the secretary of the corporation has taken the matter up with the Minister's Department. It is such a small matter, I think the Minister should recognise these people as being resident in Dún Laoghaire for the purpose of getting houses.
Then there is another point in connection with the clearance of a site where houses had to be demolished because they were ready to collapse. These houses were very old and the rent, I think, was somewhere in the neighbourhood of 3/-. A number of people who were born and reared in these houses are now housed in a very attractive housing scheme but, under the new system of differential rents, some of these people have to pay a rent of 22/6 a week. I purposely am not mentioning the district—it may apply to various districts. These people went into these new houses at a rent of 15/- and then suddenly, after a few weeks, the rent was increased to 22/6. In addition to that, without any notice whatever, the Electricity Supply Board charges were about trebled. I am not saying that the income of these people is not sufficient to justify that grading. But the position that these people find themselves in is that they were compelled to leave the houses which they had at a very low rent. Having been transferred to the new houses, it was necessary for the majority if not all of these people to buy new furniture. They find themselves now in the position that they are saddled with the cost of furnishing a new house, that they have to meet a very greatly increased rent and with charges, such as Electricity Supply Board charges, increased also.
The suggestion I make in such cases is that it would be well to allow the rent to remain for a period even at 15/-. The reason I make that suggestion is that to my own knowledge in some of those houses which I visited there is a vacant room unfurnished. I clearly see what is going to happen in the next few weeks, if it has not already happened. These people, in spite of the regulations, will take in a tenant in order to tide them over that difficult period. I think it would be better not to rush into imposing this increased rent in cases of that kind. I am talking now of a case of a particular type; I do not think it would be very widespread. I think it would be much better in such cases to leave the rent as it was, at 15/- a week for a period, let us say, of 12 months.
There is another aspect and I think this is a matter in regard to which the legislation would have to be changed. I understand that in the county council area—I am not sufficiently conversant with the conditions but this is just a case that came to my notice—it is compulsory on the local authority, when a house becomes vacant, to advertise that house. Then the medical officer has to examine all the applicants for the house. Here is what is happening in the case that came under my notice. In a certain district there was a serious tuberculosis case. The man was living under deplorable conditions and two of his children were suspect. He had just come home after, I think, nine months' treatment in hospital. Two of his children, as I have said, were suspect and were receiving medical attention. It was known locally that he would get this house, so much so that no other applicant was anxious to get the house. The owner of every house which I inspected said: "There is one person who has priority over all others for that house." The family conditions were deplorable, as I said, and this house was idle for months— I think for a period of three months. During that time children broke into the house and did a considerable amount of damage—I think to the extent of about £60. The local authority lost the rent for a period of about three months and the bill they had to pay for repairs was £60. This urgent tuberculosis case was all that time without the house but my information is that nothing could be done. I should be glad if the Minister would take a note of that and see if some change could not be made to deal with cases like that, so that a list could be prepared and an examination of all applicants carried out beforehand so that when the house becomes idle a tenant will go into it without delay.
I should like to make a brief reference to the question of roads. I am sorry that the Parliamentary Secretary has left the House because while he was speaking it was quite evident to me that one cannot make general statements about any of these problems. In the Borough of Dún Laoghaire, we have a very serious problem so far as roads are concerned. We have a total of 63 miles of roads and 26 miles of these would, in the normal way, be classed as main roads but because of our constitution we have no main roads at all, technically speaking. I want to put these facts before the Minister. The position is that from 1941 to 1946 no grant at all was made to the Dún Laoghaire Corporation for roads. In 1947-48 we got £5,000 and in 1948-49 we got £10,000. Here is our particular problem. The roads have got into such a serious state of disrepair that we estimate that it would take £600,000 to do the job thoroughly. Of that total, £150,000 refers to the roads still occupied by tram lines. The contract for the Blackrock stretch would be £27,000, for Dún Laoghaire, £30,000 and for Glasthule, £19,000. We applied to the Minister on the 2nd October, 1949, for a grant for these particular stretches and that grant was refused.
I want to make an appeal to the Minister in this matter. The Parliamentary Secretary said that roads had not fallen into a serious state of dilapidation since 1948. Our position is that a considerable stretch of the road, almost from Merrion Gates to Dalkey, is occupied by tram lines. Formerly, we received from the Tramway Company a considerable sum in rates. The space which they occupied on the road was valued at £2,290. That would mean that on this year's rate we would be receiving from the Tramway Company £2,950. As well as that we would receive annually £877 from the Tramway Company for wayleaves. It is true that in 1944 we received a sum of £9,500 to clear off that indebtedness. That was calculated on the basis of 11 years' purchase, but along with that income from the Tramway Company, the company was responsible for the complete upkeep from path to path of large stretches of that road. In other parts of the borough, they were responsible for the upkeep of the centre portion of the road, that is, for a width of 18 inches each side of the rails. Now we are in the position that we are deprived of that revenue and, owing to the tram lines, our roads are in a deplorable state whilst the traffic has considerably increased. I want to put it to the Minister, and I think that in all fairness he will agree, that for that stretch of the road for which we applied for a grant we are surely entitled to a considerable grant. I am putting the facts before the Minister now in the hope that he will reconsider the whole question and give us a grant for that purpose.
Finally there is just one other point that I should like to mention. I think that the Local Government Acts are in urgent need of being brought up to date. There is very considerable confusion. No matter what you try to do as a member of a local body you find it very difficult to find out what exactly the legal position is. I will mention one particular case that came to my notice recently, that is, membership of the borough corporation. A point was raised as to qualifications. I went and looked up the Acts myself and I was very doubtful about it. I consulted several people and discovered that I had raised a first class legal problem. It was finally decided by the Local Government office that for Dún Laoghaire Borough Corporation the qualifications were to be found in the 1898 Act. A number of people think that that is the only Act but it has been discovered that there is a later Act, the Representation of the People Act of 1912, which gives further qualifications. I am mentioning this to the Minister just as an example of the position as far as Local Government Acts are concerned and I would be very glad to hear from him that it is his intention to bring them up to date and have them in some unified form.
