asked the Minister for Local Government when it is proposed to sanction the eleven nominee site proposals for single rural cottages (list supplied), submitted to his Department by the Dublin County Council.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Dublin County Cottage Scheme.
19.
Of the 11 proposals listed by the Deputy, one was approved in principle in October, 1962, and a second was rejected in March, 1963, because the site was considered unsuitable. Further information has been requested in respect of a third proposal. Two further proposals which relate to the provision of serviced cottages are under examination.
Six proposals relate to the erection of unserviced cottages on sites which cannot be serviced with a water supply and which are unsuitable for a septic tank and a roof tank. I am not satisfied that a local authority such as Dublin County Council with its relatively dense and increasing population and its existing and proposed arrangements for the provision of piped water supplies should, unless the circumstances are exceptional, propose the erection of unserviced cottages on sites which would compel the occupants to transport water, for domestic and other purposes, distances of up to half a mile and on which the only sanitary arrangements feasible are those provided by a chemical closet. The housing authority have adequate powers to acquire sites suitable for connection to public services or other water supplies and a septic tank. I am asking the housing authority to review the six proposals in question in this light.
Is the Minister aware that this has been going on for years in Dublin County Council and that, short of getting these people to live completely away from the farms where they now live and work, it is not possible to give them the services he wants and which we would all like to see them getting?
I understand there is a meeting of the committee dealing with housing at the end of the week. It is hoped that the views of my Department will be before that committee. I think we might await the result of its deliberations.
What the Minister is saying is this: at last, because of the fact this has been brought out in the open, something will be done about it by Dublin County Council?
It does not follow at all.
Somebody must have been very negligent all these years if that intervention brought these results.
Question Nos. 20 and 21 postponed.