asked the Minister for Local Government whether he is aware that the only accommodation available to many young married couples is rented accommodation at £5 or £6 per week; and that such rents, coupled with low income, inflict great privation on these young people; and whether he will give consideration to devising a scheme whereby, pending provision of accommodation at reasonable rents, financial assistance would be given to such people subject to suitable safeguards against a simultaneous increase in rents.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Rented Accommodation.
30.
Detailed statistics of prevailing charges for rented accommodation for the classes mentioned by the Deputy are not available in my Department. While I am aware of the difficulty of paying high rents from low incomes, I do not agree that a scheme of the type mentioned by the Deputy would be the solution. Apart from the difficulties of administration and the need for ensuring that rents were not increased as a result of the subsidy, the scheme would do nothing to add to the present stock of dwellings. A continuation of the present efforts by the Government in dealing with the housing problem and of the grants and other forms of assistance available for housing would be much more advantageous to the people referred to in the Deputy's question.
If the Minister is satisfied that my suggestion here would not be a contribution towards helping the many hundreds, if not thousands, of unfortunate couples who are forced to pay exorbitant rents for single rooms or small flats, rents of up to £6 a week in this city, with very small income, if he is satisfied, as he says at the end of his answer, that this suggestion would not be a contribution to the solution of this grave social injustice in this racket, what has he to offer himself other than the very vague generalised appendage at the end of his answer? Surely this situation calls for action on this matter?
The Deputy cannot make a speech.
I am seeking information on this matter. Surely this is the place where you should have some free speech.
This is Question Time and Deputies are not allowed to make a long statement on their questions.
It is very obviously not answer time.
I cannot answer until Deputy Dunne sits down.
I have every intention of obeying the Chair as I have always been found to do, as the Chair is very well aware. It is in the interests of the people concerned that I am raising this question to try to get some positive action from the Minister whose job it is to help them. I want to suggest to him that there is something more needed than that suggested in his reply. This sort of evasion and repetition of plaititudes does not bring relief to people in hardship.
I think the question the Deputy asked was what I proposed to do. What I propose to do is to spend the ever-increasing amount of money which the economy can provide to provide the greatest possible number of houses.
This in Boland's bluff: from Blaney's blarney to Boland's bluff.
(Interruptions.)
You have to have money to build houses, and if you have not got a sound economy, you cannot get money.
Having regard to the fact that the Minister says he intends to spend money, would he not advise the people concerned in this matter the extent to which he intends to spend it? Will the Minister ascertain how many people are concerned in this matter? He says he does not know. Surely it is his job to know?
That is not what I was asked. I know how many people are on the local authority waiting list but that is not what I was asked.
You said you had not got the information.
I have not got that type of information.
It is very readily available from Dublin Corporation.
(Interruptions.)