I move:—
That Dáil Eireann is of the opinion that the present level of differential rents in the Ballyfermot scheme is excessive and requests the Minister for Local Government to revise the scheme so as to ensure that only the wages of the head of the family are assessed and that the maximum rent to be charged shall not exceed 15/- per week with special allowance to be made for large families of young children, newly-weds, and unemployed.
I urge this motion upon the House because of representations which have been made to me, and I am sure to practically every other public representative in Dublin City and County, on the vexed subject of differential rents. It is necessary at the outset to examine the purpose of differential rents. Everybody is aware that since the end of the war housing costs have been at a very high level, and that it costs very much more now to build a house of any kind than it did in pre-war years. However, I want to draw attention to the method of renting which has been applied in the Ballyfermot housing scheme. Possibly the first public representative of this country to suggest a differential renting scheme was the late Councillor James Larkin. It was conceived at that time as a method whereby the hardships which working-class families ordinarily undergo in the society in which we live to-day could, to some extent, be eased. It was felt that there should be a differential renting scheme which would afford these families an opportunity of paying a rent in accordance with their means. I hope to point out to the House that in the course of the years which have passed since this scheme was first thought of and originated the whole purpose of the scheme has become perverted and obscured and that it is no longer being operated, at least in the Ballyfermot area, as a method for the easement of the difficulties of working-class families but is, rather, being operated for an entirely different purpose. The primary purpose of differential rents, not alone in this country but in other countries where the system was in operation long before we thought of it, was to render a little less difficult the problem of working-class families by allowing them, when they were unemployed or in difficulties, to have houses at lower rents. I am afraid that what has happened over the past few years is totally in conflict with that principle.
Dublin Corporation very often comes under fire from the rate-paying sections of the city, particularly from the more well-to-do and propertied rate-paying sections of the city, because of the alleged high rates. I am not concerned with the question of whether Dublin Corporation rates are high or not. They are, I suppose, at as high a level as the rates of any other local authority in the country. In the light of that, it is interesting to learn that Dublin Corporation contributes a sum of 3/2 in the pound in respect of charges which arise from the operation of the Housing of the Working Classes Acts. I do not think anybody will say that that is a very great demand upon the rates of this city for the housing of the vast mass of working-class people we have in this city. In fact, I suppose a case could very well be made for a larger contribution from the rates of the city for the easement of the high rents which are demanded of tenants of houses which are built under the Housing of the Working Classes Acts. Between the 1st April, 1926, and the 31st March of this year Dublin Corporation has built approximately 23,500 houses for working-class people. Immediately prior to the outbreak of the last war it was possible for a working-class family in Dublin City to obtain a four-roomed house from Dublin Corporation at a rent of 12/2 per week. In the area which this motion concerns, the area of Ballyfermot, there are working-class families who are being charged rents of 36/- per week, which is well over 300 per cent. of an increase on pre-war rents. It is to try to remedy this state of affairs, and to bring some consideration into the minds of people for the difficulties that families are having in meeting that rent, that I am raising this motion. I am aware that the Minister's function in this matter is merely an advisory one, but it is a function which should be exercised because it is very necessary at the present time.
In 1938-39 Dublin Corporation provided three-roomed cottages or houses at 9/2 per week. At present, the differential rents in the Ballyfermot scheme range from 7/6 to 36/-. The lowest rent of 7/6 applies to people who are almost totally destitute and the rent of 36/- applies to families where a number of the children might be employed. If the society in which we live to-day in this country is so constructed as to require a badly-paid working-class, and if the majority of the legislators of this country believe that that principle must prevail, then easement of the burden of working-class people must be made in some other way if it is not made by means of weekly wages. It devolves upon a Government and local authority not alone to build houses for working-class people but to provide them at reasonable rents. I do not think anybody will try to make the case that a rent of 36/- a week, or anything in the nature of that figure, is an equitable rent. Those who are being housed in the Ballyfermot scheme at present must reveal to the local authority the most intimate details of their family circumstances so far as earnings are concerned. That would be an inevitable part of any differential renting scheme but, in my view, a system whereby excessive rents are imposed, as in this case, will inevitably lead to deceit and evasion, and that is socially bad. If rents are fixed at a fair level, at a level which people will regard as reasonable, then the social difficulties to which I have referred are at least less likely to arise.
I understand that the economic rent of the houses which are being built at Ballyfermot is in the neighbourhood of 36/-. It is of interest to note that, in calculating the economic rent of these houses and for the purpose of imposing a differential rental system, no consideration is given, and no thought is taken, of Government subsidies, while we all know that, at the moment, Government subsidies in regard to this matter are reasonably substantial. We all know that the subsidy given by the central authority to the local authority has been reasonably substantial over a number of years. As I have said, when calculating the rents of the houses in Ballyfermot, no thought whatever is taken of the subsidies in arriving at the economic rent. I believe that is something which the Minister should take note of because what it means is this. It means that, under the system which is being operated, we have one half of the working-class population in Ballyfermot paying rent for the other half who are less able to pay. That is very wrong. I suggest that there devolves on the central authority of this State the duty of providing houses at reasonable rents. I regard the present system operating in Ballyfermot as being an exploitation and a deception of working people.
Last year, representations were made in this House by certain Deputies in regard to the operation of differential rents in other parts of County Dublin. One Deputy who is concerned in this particular motion, because he, apparently, wants to kill it by means of an amendment, sought in April of last year and, again, twice in December, to bring home to the then Minister for Local Government the tremendous hardships which the people of the county were suffering through the operation of the differential renting system. He urged upon the then Minister the need for increased subsidies for these houses as a method whereby rent levels might be reduced.
