asked the Minister for Local Government if he will state for the period 1932 to date for each county, the county boroughs of Dublin and Cork and the borough of Dún Laoghaire (a) how many local authority houses have been built by the State, the cost of these houses, and the amount of grants and loans paid out, (b) how many private houses were built and the amount of grants and loans paid out, (c) how much money has been lent under the SDA loan scheme, and (d) how much money has been paid in reconstruction grants for housing repairs by (i) the State and (ii) local authorities.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Building of Houses.
14.
The information is not available in the detail requested. The relevant aggregate information, for the period from 1st April, 1932, to the 31st March, 1968, in so far as it is available, is as follows: (a) 131,300 local authority dwellings were provided, at a total cost of the order of £170 million of which about £116 million was met by loans from the Local Loans Fund, £9.6 million by capital grants which were paid exceptionally from the Exchequer for local authority housing during the period from 1946-47 to 1955-56 and the balance almost entirely by borrowings from sources other than the Local Loans Fund and by local authorities' internal resources. The sum of £170 million includes relatively small amounts spent on capital account on maintenance and repair works and on the acquisition of land for private housing.
Since 1932, State subsidy towards the rents of local authority dwellings has normally been by way of annual contributions towards the charges on loans incurred by local authorities in financing the construction of the houses; in all these subsidy payments have amounted to about £42.5 million. Subsidies towards rents borne by local authorities on the rates have totalled an additional £48 million, approximately.
(b) 138,300 private dwellings were built and a further 170,000 approximately were reconstructed with the aid of State grants; figures for the period for the numbers of dwellings provided without the aid of grants or by the conversion of existing dwellings are not available. It is estimated that about 400 to 450 private houses a year have been provided in this way in recent years.
State grants for new, reconstructed and improved houses amounted approximately, to a total of £46 million and supplementary grants by local authorities to £15.5 million.
(c) House-purchase loans by local authorities under the Small Dwellings Acquisition Acts, 1899 to 1962, and subsequent legislation amounted to a total of about £64 million.
(d) Separate figures for the value of new houses and reconstruction grants by the State and by local authorities are not available for the period.
Might I inquire if it was an oversight on the part of Deputy Burke not to include paragraph (d) (iii) to inquire the Minister's information on friars, monks and clergy?
That is a separate question.
That question should be addressed to Deputy Burke.
I thought he would address it to the Minister owing to the Minister's reputation as an authority on the clergy.
I am entitled to object to falsehood being propagated on television under the guise of so-called religious programmes.
This is a free country. The Minister is entitled to any outrage he likes under the law. In this House, he is speaking under absolute privilege.
I will show that false figures were given on that programme.
Not by the unfortunate clergyman.
Yes, they were emphasised deliberately by the clergyman.
No, they were not.
The people were put on the programme by the clergyman for the purpose of propagating the falsehoods.
The Minister did not like the figures.
The correct figures were available to him.
(Cavan): Might I ask if it would be possible for the Minister to give the information asked for in Question No. 14 year by year and county by county?
That is a separate question.
Yes, if it is asked for, every effort will be made to give it.