asked the Minister for Local Government the date on which he received an application from Meath County Council for permission to borrow money from the local loans fund to erect 36 isolated cottages; and the date on which sanction was given.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Meath Cottages.
66.
This application was received in my Department on the 9th October, 1969. As I have approved recently of the acceptance of tenders for these cottages, I expect to sanction the loan shortly.
Can the Minister say is there any point in sanctioning tenders without sanctioning the loan?
The loan will be sanctioned shortly. There are these two stages involved.
Could the Minister——
We cannot build houses without money.
That is the reason I am pointing out to the Minister——
That is why I have to sanction the loan.
——that there is no point in sanctioning the application for permission without sanctioning the loan.
There is. The local authority have to get the authority to accept the tender and then I have to sanction the loan, because they cannot pay a contractor without money.
What the Minister sanctioned——
I know the Deputy's party do not understand this and that the Deputy's party believe that all that is necessary to build houses is to declare a housing emergency. I know, on the other hand, that in addition to declaring a housing emergency you must provide the money and, therefore, you must build up the economy so that it can provide the money. That is why we build houses and the building industry continues, while it collapsed under the Coalition.
I hate holding up the proceedings but I want to put the facts straight for the Minister. Does he not know that there is no point in sanctioning tenders—incidentally, he did not know it was the tender he sanctioned. He sanctioned the tender but he did not give any money for the purpose of building the houses. What I want to know is will he now say how soon it will be. Will it be to-morrow or next week or the week after, because some of these people have been waiting for about ten years, and it was only when we got rid of the council dominated by Fianna Fáil that we built 150 houses in Meath in the last couple of years?
The position here was that because of the success of my efforts to induce Meath County Council to go ahead with plans and proposals for houses their full capital allocation had already been spent. It was therefore necessary to allocate to them a further amount to go ahead with this scheme.
When will the Minister do that?
I told the Deputy.
The Minister did not.
I did.
Soon.
I did not say soon.
When?
Shortly.
When is shortly?
Soon.