asked the Minister for Local Government whether his Department intend taking any action to curtail the amount of office building in Dublin and to direct resources so employed into the provision of houses.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Office Building in Dublin.
10.
It is a matter for Dublin Corporation as planning authority to determine the policy for the accommodation and control of office development in their area. The draft development plan for the city which was recently prepared by the Corporation includes a number of provisions in this regard.
It cannot be assumed of course that the discouragement of office building in Dublin by whatever means, would necessarily divert resources to the provision of housing.
Is the Minister aware that certain Government Departments have given an impetus to this tendency to build more office blocks in Dublin and that people have invested money in this very profitable undertaking in the short term? It follows that if we could divert the resources at present going to office buildings to the provision of housing by cutting the profit rate, a great deal could be done to relieve the situation. Is the Minister aware that certain Government Departments have helped on this tendency towards making office buildings more profitable?
I am aware that certain Government Departments have taken more suitable office accommodation, but there is no question of the Government or any Government Department encouraging this expensive office building.
Is the Minister aware that a big element in the present high returns in profits for office building in Dublin is the part Government Departments have played in taking over such office buildings?
Liberty Hall.
The most obvious example of that—I see it every day; I have only to look out of my window, and I do not think there are any Government Departments in it——
(Interruptions.)
The only example there is in Dublin of a purely prestige office building is outside my office window in the Custom House.
And the workers own it.
That is the only one that does not pay its way. It is so expensively constructed as to be completely uneconomical. That is the only organisation I know of which had sufficient money to build a purely wasteful building, which has not even got the virtue of being an economic undertaking.
If the Minister wishes to cover up his action by cheap jibes of that nature——
It is not supported, so far as I know, by Government Departments.
Question No. 11, to the Minister for Labour.
If it were possible for us to have stopped that office building, as this question suggests, there was no guarantee that the money would have been diverted to the provision of houses.