asked the Minister for Local Government if representations have been made to his Department by housing authorities following the publication of the White Paper (P.R. 7981); what local authorities have made recommendations; and the nature of the recommendations.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Recommendations of Housing Authorities.
17.
The housing authorities who submitted representations to my Department either directly or through representative organisations, following publication of the White Paper, include the county borough corporations of Cork, Dublin and Limerick; the borough corporations of Clonmel, Dún Laoghaire and Kilkenny, the county councils of Cork, Dublin, Kildare, Longford, Roscommon, Tipperary (NR and SR) and Westmeath, as well as numerous urban district councils and town commissioners. These representations were fully considered in connection with the preparation of the Housing Bill, 1965. The work involved in summarising the representations, many of which are of a technical nature, would not be justified. For example, the report of Dublin Corporation alone runs to ten printed pages.
So, in fact, although the circular was sent out inviting certain representations to be made, when those representations were made, it was not found possible to consider them before the Bill was drafted.
Oh, yes. I have said that they were considered.
How could the Minister consider them if they were too big——
The Deputy is asking for the nature of the recommendations and what I am saying is that, having fully considered them in connection with the preparation of the Housing Bill, 1965, I am now further saying in reply to the last part of his question that the work involved in summarising all of these is such that I do not think it would be possible to do it. I instanced the fact that the report of the Dublin Corporation ran to ten printed pages.
Would it be fair to ask the Minister if he found the recommendations useful or did he use them in the Bill?
Of course, I did.
Could the Minister say whether or not there was any recommendation that the grants be increased?
That is a different question.
It must have been amongst those considered.
That is a different question.