Yesterday, I asked the Minister for Local Government if he is aware that there is a grave shortage of money to meet loans and supplementary grants for new houses in every county at the present time; and what action he intends to take to provide money to meet the obligations of the various county councils.
In his reply, the Minister said he did not agree with the implication in the question that there is a grave shortage of funds to meet commitments arising on foot of loans and supplementary grants already allocated by housing authorities. He stated that the implication in my question was unfounded.
Anything I stated yesterday is founded on fact. I am a member of the Westmeath County Council, a member of a local authority. I know the position in various local authorities. It can be said that, throughout the length and breadth of Ireland today, every housing authority is faced with the same difficulty, namely, a grave shortage of money to meet loans and grants. The Minister also stated yesterday that the allocation for supplementary grants is generally regarded by housing authorities as reasonable, in the light of their commitments and anticipated demands. I challenge him to give the name of one county council who believe that the allocations made by him are reasonable in the light of their commitments and anticipated demands. In Westmeath alone, up to the end of February or early March, we were committed, morally and in duty bound, to pay at least £171,000. We have been allocated a sum of £92,000 until March, 1967, which leaves us short of roughly £79,000 to meet our existing commitments. The Minister and some of his officials are trying to get out of it. They are saying that, legally, we are not bound to pay this money because from last September or October we sent out a notification to applicants stating "if and when money is available...."
Can you blame people for going ahead with this work? Can you blame them for building houses or for reconstructing their houses when, time after time in this House, the Minister for Local Government has pointed out that ample money is available and that there is no shortage of money to meet these commitments? The people are entitled to be told the truth. To the Minister for Local Government, politics seem no longer to be the art of the possible but an exercise in the avoidance of responsibility. Parliament here, I think, has become a place not where problems are faced or where questions are truthfully answered but where they are circumvented. I claim that the present is no time for evasion. There is no use in trying to mislead the public any longer. The people are entitled to know the truth and the full truth. I believe that this Government, and any Government, have a duty and a responsibility to govern the people and to tell them the truth as regards housing loans, housing grants and anything else, but certainly not to mislead them.
At the present time we may be heading for anarchy in this country. The duty devolves upon the Government to take the people into their confidence and to face up to their responsibility. The Irish people have been in difficulties on many occasions in the past and if they are aware of the full facts, they will always be able to overcome such difficulties.
The Minister denied the implication contained in my Question No. 13 on yesterday's Order Paper. Let us take a look at the Irish Times of today, 18th May, 1966. While, according to the Minister's colleagues, the Irish Times may be said to be the mistress of the Fine Gael Party, I think it is an intelligent paper. It tells the truth and gives the facts as it knows them and presents them without any political bias one way or another. The heading over the article I wish to quote from is “The Picture in the Building Trade—Rusting Machinery, Idle Workers, Emigration.” Then we read:
Machinery rusting in yards and workers boarding the emigrant ship has been the picture in the building industry—particularly in the house building sector — during the past year, according to the 1965-66 annual report of the Federation of Builders, Contractors and Allied Employers of Ireland, which was presented to their annual meeting in Dublin yesterday.
Official statistics, which state that work is being maintained at the same level as last year, simply do not reconcile with the facts, the report declares. Although there is enough work in hands at the moment to keep on most of those employed now, a further downward drift is expected.
This is a depressing state of affairs. It has been brought about by the mismanagement of the present Government. They mismanaged the affairs of this country and built very few houses here in the period 1957 until last year. The dead hand of Fianna Fáil has brought us into the position in which we are today, the position where, according to this report which is supplied by intelligent people, by people who know the full facts, the building industry is slowly grinding to a halt. Builders and workers are emigrating.
In my county and in other counties, there are houses lying half-built. The contractors have had to stop the work because of the uncertainty of the times. They do not know whether to proceed with the work and, if they do, whether they will be paid the loans or the grants. The builders are in a quandary. They are being pressed to pay bills. They cannot collect the money because the people for whom they are building the houses have no guarantee from any county council in Ireland that they will get the money, either for loans or grants.
I would ask the Minister to correct the impression, if it is erroneous, which is abroad in this country at present that housing authorities have had their projected housing programmes completely curtailed owing to lack of capital so that not more than one-third of their building schemes can be started this year. Furthermore, can the Minister dispel the gloom of the tenants of cottages who fear that badly-needed repairs will not be effected in the coming 12 months because he will not sanction loans for repairs? Already, he has refused two county councils, Wexford County Council and Cork County Council. Would the Minister clearly state what the position is regarding payment of supplementary grants by local authorities? I must assume the Minister is aware—he should be—of the position regarding SDA loans and the hopeless position of applicants seeking to build their own houses and being, at best, put on the long finger, if not refused outright, because of a shortage of money.
I should also like the Minister to refer to the cuts he is imposing—he cannot deny it—on the provision of sanitary services without which house building cannot proceed. Could the Minister give any assurance to the House that money will be available this year to clear up all the outstanding loans and supplementary grants due by different county councils and housing authorities? That affects my county and I think it affects many other counties. We would also like assurances that those who build their own houses and are building them at present will get their loans and grants, and also that those who have reconstructed their houses will get loans.
I deny categorically what was stated here yesterday by the Minister, that local authorities were trying to get the Department to clear up long-standing debts incurred by the county councils. That is deliberate falsehood, deliberate——