asked the Minister for Local Government if, having regard to the hardship caused by the residential period qualification imposed by local authorities in respect of housing applications, he will waive that requirement, particularly where applicants to one authority have surrendered a tenancy in another local authority's dwelling.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Housing Residential Qualification.
34.
The allocation of tenancies of local authority dwellings is a function of the authority concerned, subject to compliance with the requirements of the Housing (Management and Letting) Regulations, 1950 and 1953. These regulations do not require a residence qualification for applicants for houses to be imposed. It is open to the Deputy to take up with the responsible housing authorities the operation of any such qualification which he considers to involve hardship.
Is the Minister aware that this practice to which I have referred is, as far as I know, almost universal——
No.
It is.
Universal in Dublin, yes.
It may be where the demand is greatest and the supply least, but having regard to some cases where people actually surrender local authority houses in one part, would the Minister not consider that there is an urgent case for amending the regulations and also having regard to the fact that as housing is a vital requisite, people should not be denied it on a geographical basis?
The only evidence of this type of qualification is in Dublin city and county. If the two authorities could get together, they could perhaps iron out the reasons and arrive at an equitable solution as to the number of houses the other is responsible for. I think this derives from that. You have people who would be qualified if they got a house in the city or built a house in the city, leaving the city and moving out to the county, and the county's attitude must have been: "We have our own people who are entitled to these houses and we will use the money of our ratepayers to help them and we should not encourage more to come from the city." Likewise, if the traffic were in the other direction, as it may have been at some time, one could see the corporation's attitude might have resulted in both having to use this qualification to some degree over the years. It is something that could and should be solved by the two parties rather than by some measure of mine or of this House.
Apart from that general local rivalry between the two authorities, is the Minister aware of the difficulty facing a man working on the railway who may be transferred to the county with his wife and four or five children and who is obliged to wait for four or five years in Dublin city, paying an exorbitant rent for a house? Does the Minister think that that is a proper situation?
I do not think it is. I do not agree at all with this sort of hedging in of a particular part, as it were.
Does the Deputy think it would be proper to open the floodgates and——
I will leave it between you.