asked the Minister for the Environment if he will make funds available to Dublin Corporation to purchase urban land for future developments and for schools, houses, and industry, as required by population increases.
Written Answers. - Dublin Urban Development.
177.
In general, the financing of land acquisition for schools and for industry is not a matter for my Department. All housing authorities, including Dublin Corporation are permitted to acquire, by agreement, land which they consider essential for their housing programmes and on which they expect to start building within, say, five years. Such acquisitions must be financed initially by temporary loan or overdraft, the cost being recouped, with holding charges, from the Local Loans Fund according as plans have been prepared for local authority housing schemes on the land. Local authorities can also allocate sites acquired and developed by them for private housing and are encouraged to do so by means of a subsidy. The subsidisable cost limit on a developed site was increased last year from £900 to £1,500.
Roads authorities have been informed in the General Memorandum attaching to the notification of road grants for 1979 that in order to ensure that the cost of land acquisition does not interfere with the programming of future national road improvement works such costs may continue to be charged against the current grant allocation, subject to the prior agreement of my Department. In this context road grants totalling £3.403 million, have been allocated to Dublin Corporation towards the cost of road works in the current year.
The cost of land required for water and sewerage schemes is part of the capital cost of these schemes and is an eligible expense for loan and subsidy purposes.