asked the Minister for Local Government whether he is aware that the 1966 census figures show an increase of 2,400 or 11 per cent in the number of cases where more than one family unit had to share the same dwelling; whether he is aware that almost three-quarters of this increase was concentrated in Dublin, where the number of such multiple family households increased by 35 per cent, from 4,900 to 6,650 in this period; and that a similar trend existed in the three other major cities; and whether in view of this evidence of a worsening of overcrowding during this period he will step up the housing programme in these cities.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Housing Programme.
65.
I am aware of the census figures. As indicated in the White Paper, "Housing in the Seventies", the period from 1961 to 1966 was one in which, because of rising prosperity the number of married couples living in the country increased at a rate that was about ten times greater than that of the 1950s and the population of Dublin city and county increased by about six times the number of persons by which it increased in the preceding five years. The Government recognising these trends, issued a White Paper in 1964 which postulated an increase in housing output from 7,800 dwellings in 1963-64 to 12,000/ 14,000 by 1970. In 1969, 13,983 houses were, in fact, completed. In the five years to 31st March, 1971, the number of houses built is likely to amount to about 64,000—more than 50 per cent higher than the number built in the preceding five year period. The rate of building in Dublin city and county is now just under three times the rate achieved in the early 1960s.
Special measures taken by the Government in recent years to supplement the ordinary house-building programme of Dublin Corporation include the Ballymun scheme of 3,265 dwellings which was at the time it was started among the biggest single housing contracts in Europe and the 676 dwellings at Tallaght. In Cork, at my request, the National Building Agency began in June 1968, a special scheme designed to provide a total of about 1,800 dwellings. In Limerick, the Agency began a scheme——
Due to the pressure of Limerick Corporation. The Minister is going back to 1014. He should start at Clontarf and proceed from there.
(Interruptions.)
The Minister's answer should be heard.
Do not break up the Coalition that was only reformed last week.
(Interruptions.)
——of 601 houses in March, 1968. The number of dwellings completed by Waterford Corporation in the three years ended on the 31st March, 1969 was 2½ times the corresponding figure for the previous three-year period.
At the end of 1969, the number of dwellings which Dublin Corporation had in progress, in tender, at planning, or for which they had acquired sites was 17,616 compared with 7,156 at the end of 1966. For Cork Corporation, the corresponding figures were 8,506 at the end of 1969 and 2,760 at the end of 1966; for Limerick Corporation 1,705 at the end of 1969 and 1,010 at the end of 1966; and for Waterford Corporation 1,946 at the end of 1969 and 1,033 at the end of 1966.
With regard to the housing programme for coming years, the 1969 White Paper which took cognisance of the trends to which the Deputy refers, sets out the Government's basic objective of ensuring that, as far as the resources of the economy permit, every family can obtain a house of good standard at a price or rent they can afford and indicates that to meet this objective about 15,000 to 17,000 houses a year will be required by the mid-1970's. As the Paper indicates, if a level of building above this estimate is found to be needed, the projections made will not be regarded as limiting output.
Ignoring the irrelevant cover-up of the operations of the Minister and getting back to the question, would he not agree that it is a disgrace to his Government that in a period which started four years after his Government came into office and, therefore, a period for which he cannot blame anyone else in his typical fashion, overcrowding in Dublin in terms of families having to double up in the same dwellings increased by 35 per cent? Would he not also agree that the publication of these figures during the past month for the first time show that there is a need for a complete reform of the Dublin housing programme? Would the Minister not agree further that his housing White Paper which established a backlog of 59,000 houses and then dismissed this as something to be cleared up in ten or 13 years is totally inadequate?
No. The re-thinking on this matter is indicated in the White Paper of 1964 and, as Deputy FitzGerald does not know but as he will learn to appreciate eventually, when housing stops it takes a considerable time to get it going again. The figures I have read out show how successful this Government have been not only in getting housing activity going at a high rate again after its collapse due to the bungling Coalition Parties, but also in maintaining it at a high level.
Would the Minister agree that the criterion of success is not what you build, whether you built more than somebody else, or who built less or who built more—and, indeed, the two Coalitions' record of building far exceeds anything this Government have ever done——
No.
——but that the relevant question is whether overcrowding is increasing or decreasing? Does he agree that the real condemnation of this Government is that, in a period which began four years after they came into office, overcrowding increased by 35 per cent in Dublin?
The position is that overcrowding in Dublin, despite the huge expansion in the population in Dublin to which I have referred, is decreasing——
Increased by 35 per cent.
——and it is because of the fact that the people know that, that the Deputy's party is still over there.
Increased by 35 per cent.