asked the Minister for Local Government why it does not appear to be possible to secure simultaneous ministerial sanction to the acceptance of a tender and to the borrowing of money to finance that tender.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Housing Tenders.
116.
The amount of loan for a local authority project is normally based on the amount of the approved tender, since it is not possible to get a reasonably accurate estimate of cost before that stage is reached. When the tender has been approved the process of the loan application normally proceeds without undue delay.
It should be easy for the Department to process the loans at the same time as the other matter. While what the Parliamentary Secretary says is correct about it not being possible to finalise it in most cases if the Department are sanctioning the tender they know the amount and therefore his excuse is not quite valid.
While the present method may have certain disadvantages it has other advantages which the older scheme did not have. We can get a better and a quicker utilisation of the amount of money available. The old system of allocating a loan to a particular housing scheme where in a number of cases tenders were not accepted and where the road contractor withdrew his tender——
The Parliamentary Secretary is answering a question which I did not ask. Would he say why when the tender is submitted and therefore there is no danger of it being accepted——
Yes, there is a danger.
——he cannot arrange to have the loan considered at the same time? Why must the tender be six months in the Department and the loan application a further six months in the Department? By that time the cost of the houses has gone up and naturally contractors are kicking at that stage.
There are a number of reasons.
Shortage of money is the main one.
Including shortage of money. There may be a number of reasons. The reason why the loan sanction and the tender sanction are not carried out together is because in many cases the lowest tenderer having been notified of his success may not, and does not in many cases, proceed to build those houses at all.
The Parliamentary Secretary obviously does not understand the question he was asked. I am sorry to have bothered him with it.