asked the Minister for Local Government if he will state the conditions under which he may decide that an applicant should be paid the £60 grant by a local authority in cases where sanitary and bathroom accommodation has been incorporated in the erection of new houses for which the grant of £225 has been already paid by the county council.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Local Authority Housing Grants.
In connection with the provision for supplementary grants under Section 7 of the Housing (Amendment) Act, 1950, Section 21 (3) of the Housing (Amendment) Act, 1952 authorises the Minister in the event of an appeal from a person aggrieved by the refusal or failure of a housing authority to make a supplementary grant or by the amount of a supplementary grant, to direct the authority to make any grant which the Minister thinks just and which could have been made by the authority under Section 7 of the Act of 1950.
Do I take it from that that in cases where the local authority pays the grant, minus a certain sum in respect of a bathroom and sanitary accommodation, the Minister can in all cases make the remainder of the grant available or give a direction to the local authority to give the remaining portion?
I am not quite clear as to what the Deputy has in mind but I think I know. The Housing Act, 1952, provides that a State grant will be made in respect of the erection of a new house, say, for a five-room house of £225 non-serviced. If the application is made through a public utility society it will amount to £235. If the house is a serviced house it will amount to £275 or, in the case of an application through a public utility society, £285. Section 7 of the 1950 Act was a permissive section and enabled the local authority, where it adopted a scheme under that section, to pay supplemental grants. The scheme decided upon by any particular local body was submitted to my Department at the time and sanctioned. If the scheme decided upon by the local authority was a £1 for £1 grant to the applicant, as it was in Mayo, naturally the local authority would not in justice be entitled to refuse a grant to a man for a fully serviced house and pay him instead a grant for a non-serviced house.
Thank you.