andMr. Quinn asked the Minister for the Environment if he is aware that there are now just under 8,000 families on the waiting-lists of the three local authorities in the Dublin region and that the available vacancies for allocation, including new dwellings, amount to approximately 33 per cent of approved applications; and if he is in a position to make an increase of capital funds available immediately to the Dublin housing authorities to enable them to increase the supply of new dwellings to meet the demands for dwellings.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Dublin Housing Need.
3.
The latest information received from the three housing authorities in the Dublin area indicates that of the total of 8,156 approved applicants on their housing lists, they hope to rehouse, in either new houses or through vacancies in existing houses, a total of 3,441 or 40 per cent of their approved applicants in the current year. This compares with a total of 3,327 families rehoused in 1979 or about 36 per cent of the 9,214 approved applicants on their waiting lists in that year. Following the Government's recent decision to increase the authorised expenditure on the local authority housing programme for 1980 by £12 million I notified Dublin Corporation, Dublin County Council and Dun Laoghaire Corporation of increases of £3 million, £.9 million and £.15 million respectively in their capital allocation. This brought the allocations for the Dublin area to £49.35 million, or about 43 per cent of the total authorised capital expenditure of £113.75 million in 1980. As regards 1981, applications for capital allocation for the Dublin area will be considered in conjunction with similar applications from other housing authorities in the context of the overall capital which will be made available by the Government for this purpose.
Has the Minister had representations from Dublin Corporation to increase the sum of money made available to them for the purposes of housing?
I cannot say that. It has not been brought to my notice.
Do I gather from the Minister's lengthy reply that he is satisfied with the present position obtaining in the Dublin city and country area?
The total allocation of housing finances is that Dublin gets 43 per cent and the rest of the country gets the balance. With the resources available to me, I am reasonably satisfied.
Is it not a fact that by giving 43 per cent the Minister is giving a slightly lower percentage than was given in the past few years to Dublin? I quite agree that the correct thing to do is to give the major share to Dublin, because that is where the big trouble is. Would the Minister not agree that, even with the money he has allocated and the additional money, there is still a percentage reduction in the amount of money made available for housing this year? Similar to the reply to the previous question the amount is more than the 2 per cent which applies to the whole country.
The position, which is a great worry to me at the moment, is that in inner Dublin it costs approximately £40,000 to erect a house.
Why does not the Minister control land prices?
In some parts of the country we are able to erect a house for about £12,000 but, on average, it costs about £20,000 per house. For the amount of money we are allocating to the Dublin area we are getting better value in the country. I cannot build the same number of houses in Dublin as I can build in the country for the same amount of money.
Could I ask the Minister——
A final supplementary. We have dealt with three questions in 16 minutes.
They are important questions.
They may be important, but other questions are important also.
I appreciate the difficulties of the Chair. As a Dublin Deputy who has to face homeless people nightly, what answer can I or any other Deputy give to the 60 per cent of the 8,000 applicants on the housing list who, by the Minister's admission, will not be housed in the foreseeable future because of the Government's failure to produce the money?
I have made private building more attractive. Under the terms of the national understanding I am looking at some other proposals to help out in the situation.