Vol. 203 No. 1
asked the Minister for Local Government the result of the most recent housing survey carried out in the City of Dublin; and if, in view of the present acute shortage of housing in the Dublin area, he intends taking any special steps to aid Dublin housing authorities to provide new housing at an increased rate.
60.
asked the Minister for Local Government if he will state, further to a statement of 15th May that the survey which housing authorities had been requested to initiate in 1960 was intended to ascertain the condition of the housing stock and, in particular, the total number of unfit dwellings in each area, but would not indicate housing needs which had arisen through overcrowding, new family formation, and subtenanting in dwellings otherwise not unfit for occupation, whether he has information available to him as to the extent of overcrowding resulting from the above-mentioned factors not included in the housing survey in the City and County of Dublin; and, if so, what the present position is.
I propose, with your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, to take Questions Nos. 59 and 60 together.
I am informed that at 1st April, 1963, 4,159 applicants were on the Dublin Corporation's effective waiting list, including 542 single persons and 382 families of 2 persons. 1,903 of these families are living in overcrowded conditions, 1,165 are subtenants in corporation dwellings and 601 families and 490 single persons are living in dwellings that have been acquired or condemned.
The Corporation are assured of my full co-operation in providing whatever dwellings they decide are required. The number of dwellings completed in the year ended 31st March last showed a substantial increase compared with the previous year, the figures being 643 and 392 respectively. In a report to the Housing Committee in September last, it was estimated that 3,000 new tenancies would be created in the following 2½ years.
With regard to Dublin county, I understand that there are 917 applicants on the waiting list for rehousing but I have not got the further information which would enable a breakdown into the categories of need to which the Deputy refers.
Does the Minister intend to take any special steps with regard to the housing problem in the city of Dublin?
Not that I can think of or see need for at the moment.
Is the Minister aware that Dublin Corporation can deal only with applicants where there are five living in one room?
The effective waiting list, the breakdown of which I gave the House just now, would seem to have included within the 4,159 applicants 542 single persons and 382 families of two persons.
That is so, but they have only just reached that stage.
Surely the Minister is concerned with cases where there are five in a family living in two rooms? At the moment their applications cannot be entertained by the Dublin Corporation. Surely that is a serious situation which requires special steps to be taken to remedy it?
I should like to see more houses built, of course, in Dublin. So would everybody else. The effective additional steps that might be taken certainly evade me at this moment and I would be obliged for useful suggestions that would bring a quicker remedy than the Dublin Corporation can effect.
Does the Minister not consider more effort could be diverted towards the building of houses rather than other types of building?
The Deputy may have an argument there but I do not think anyone, on examination, will suggest that the building of houses by the Dublin Corporation has been held up because of the diversion of building skills in other directions. That does not seem to be the picture.
I should like to support Deputy Corish's suggestion that the Dublin Corporation are not providing houses at the rate they should. Has any excuse been made to him for the fact that there are people, whether the number be big or small, living in insanitary, unhygienic and overcrowded conditions? What reason can there be for that if there are building operatives available? Why is the building not done?
I do not want to start an argument in this. The Deputy is insisting on my giving a reason as to why Dublin Corporation do not seem to be able to build more quickly——
Not the Minister's reason, the Dublin Corporation's reason.
The reason is that, due to the conditions five years ago, they have not really yet succeeded in getting on to building at a pace sufficient to meet the increasing needs in Dublin today.
But building has gone on at an accelerated pace in other directions.
I am a member of the Housing Committee of Dublin Corporation. Dublin Corporation are at present building as quickly as possible. There is a time lag of two years before actual building can commence. It is only fair to refer to that and to what Dublin Corporation are doing.
The Deputy has done that now and we will proceed to question No. 61.
