(Cavan-Monaghan) asked the Minister for the Environment if he will state in respect of each housing authority the date on which they applied for an allocation for housing loans which have not yet been allocated; the amount applied for; and when he proposes to make the allocation.
Written Answers . - Housing Loans .
324.
: Housing authorities do not normally make application for specific allocations in respect of housing loans.
An initial allocation was made to each authority on March 11 last in respect of the payment of house purchase, low rise mortgage and improvement loans and supplementary housing grants in the six-month period ending on 30 June last. This allocation was based on the estimated requirements of authorities for these schemes as supplied to the Department in October 1979 and on trends in payments experienced by authorities during 1979.
There has been a substantial increase in the demand for loans under the local authority purchase and improvement loan schemes in all local authority areas. This has resulted in considerable pressure on the available funds, even though an unprecedentedly high allocation has been made in the Public Capital Programme for this purpose. The matter is being kept under review and furthermore, to ensure fair allocation of all available resources to the local authorities, the requirements of each local authority in respect of the second half of the year are being assessed monthly and allocations made on that basis to the 41 local authorities operating the scheme. It will be seen that the circumstances of all local authorities are therefore taken fully into account. In this way funds have been made available sufficient to enable most local authorities to be reasonably up to date with demands made upon them for payment on the foot of approved loans.