Last evening I concluded by outlining the effects of the Coalition's continuing crime against the young and the not-so-young unemployed citizen, a crime which can be absolved only by the provision of housing. I dealt in some considerable depth with the effects on the unemployed and with that aspect of the motion dealing with employment.
I had just broken into the question of housing in the Borough of Dún Laoghaire. I had begun by giving a number of figures in relation to applicants on the housing list from 1972 to 1976. The number of applicants in the normal way in 1972 was 520 plus 58 old folk. In 1973 the number of applicants for housing in the normal way was 576 plus 70 old folk. In 1974 it was 620 plus 102 old folk. In 1975, 540 plus 80 old folk, and in 1976, there are still 618 applicants awaiting housing in the borough plus 87 old folk. Let us be clear about it—the number of applicants on the housing list in the Borough of Dún Laoghaire does not reveal immediately the number in each applicant's family. I am taking it that, once a couple have two children, their prospect of housing becomes a reality. The average four-member family multiplied by 618 gives a figure of 2,472 people in immediate need of rehousing in that borough. That is an appalling commentary on a Coalition Government who pride themselves on their housing record. When I say 2,472 people I am probably grossly underestimating the number of people in urgent need of rehousing in that borough.
The Coalition can take full credit for the building to date, in their four-year period of office, of 56 houses as yet uncompleted in the area. Twenty-seven of those 56 houses fall due for occupation in December next and 29 in May of next year. Of course, there is land in course of development for housing in the Ballybrack area. Nevertheless, the figures I have given are an appalling commentary on the Coalition's crime, as it were, against the people of that borough, in the first instance, on the employment front, the lack of job opportunity and, secondly, their entitlement, as a civic right, to housing. In 1974-75 there were 34 flatlets completed at Brookfield Lawn, Blackrock, for old folk. In 1976 there were 18 flatlets completed at Rochestown House for old folk. In relation to those two complexes, let me say that they are extremely well appointed. The officials of the Borough of Dún Laoghaire, architects, builders and so on, are to be congratulated for the thought that went into them.
There is another aspect worthy of repetition in the context of a discussion on housing, particularly during a housing crisis—and we have a housing crisis on our hands at present— there may be some people who pretend that they can get houses for applicants. They may be public representatives or others but the facts do not bear that situation out. In that respect let me pay tribute to the housing officials of the Borough of Dún Laoghaire and the Dublin County Council. They are people of the very highest integrity. Certainly they deal with public representatives' inquiries in the fairest possible way. However, all a public representative can do in relation to housing is make representations to the local authority involved. Then the points system operates—certainly in the Dún Laoghaire area— and when a person reaches an accumulated number of points he is entitled to a house. That is the reality of public representation on the housing front.
I hope the House and the people, who come to us looking for housing, will not be misled in relation to this very important principle. A Dáil Deputy or a public representative has an obligation, when a person comes inquiring about housing, to outline, before representations are made exactly what part he or she can play in the provision of a house for the applicant. That is the reality of the situation and it is as well to spell it out.
A quarter of the total work force, 25,000, in the building industry are unemployed, plus workers in the ancillary industries that supply the building and construction industry, because of Coalition housing policy. That is an ascertainable and stated fact. It is also an ascertainable fact that fewer houses were built in the public and private sectors in the first six months of 1976 compared with the same period in 1975. My figures indicate that a total of 1,800 fewer houses were built in the first six months of this year, compared with the same period last year. That also is an ascertainable fact.
The situation is not all doom and gloom. It is important to recognise that for the first time a man and a women can have their home in their joint names. This is a very important matter and the Coalition must take credit for it. We have heard of new instructions emanating from the Minister for Local Government in relation to housing maintenance grants. We have been told that county councils will have to take responsibility for the maintenance of houses. This is an extremely retrograde step. I have considerable experience in the Borough of Dún Laoghaire in relation to this matter. As well as the many people who come to me each month inquiring for houses many people come to me inquiring about maintenance. While it is important that we have new houses it is equally important that we do not let our older houses go into disrepair. The policy maintained by the Minister for Local Government in cutting back maintenance grants to the local authorities is bringing about a situation in which housing repairs cannot be conducted in the fashion they were before this.
I do not have to stress the social need of a house for a man, his wife and family. It appears that before a young couple can even think of obtaining a house they have to produce a certain number of children. I know it is proper that they should have a family but the circumstances in some cases are such that a man or woman has to live with his or her father and during that time, which may be three, four or five years before they can get a house, they have a family of two, three or four children. The new family, the man, his wife and children, are additional to the existing family in that house. In some instances in the Borough of Dún Laoghaire ten and even 12 people are living in some houses which are suitable only for a family of five or six. The people of Dún Laoghaire are entitled, as of right, to both housing and work.
