With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take questions Nos. 4 and 5 together.
The revised capital provision for new local authority housing in 1980 is £101.5 million which represents an increase of 23.8 per cent on the capital provision of £82 million for 1979; and while the actual expenditure by local authorities on new house construction in 1979 was £89.59 million the total authorised expenditure in 1980 is £113.75 million. The total capital provision for housing in 1980 is £202.53 million, an increase of 22.5 per cent on the capital provision of £165.30 million for 1979. As can be seen from these figures there have been no cutbacks in public capital for housing. The latest information available on overall housing needs shows that at the end of 1979 there were 32,519 applications for local authority houses and 25,909 of these had been approved for rehousing; that two-thirds of the approved applicants were families of three persons or less; and that with the provision each year of 6,000 new houses and about a further 3,000 becoming available for reletting through vacancies about one-third of approved applicants are rehoused each year. To imply that three out of four approved applicants have no prospect of being housed is completely irresponsible.
