asked the Minister for the Environment if he will make funds available for house purchase to clear the backlog of local authority tenants who have purchased homes and who have been waiting for loan payments for a considerable time.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Loan Payments Delay.
15.
A total of £162.5 million has been made available in 1985 for house purchase loans through the local authority and Housing Finance Agency loan schemes. These allocations are adequate to meet the demand for loan payments. Delays in payment may, of course, occur in some areas for reasons other than a shortage of funds.
In relation to delays in other areas mentioned by the Minister, are there any plans for his Department to allow local authorities to employ additional staff to avoid these backlogs? I welcome the decision to employ a legal assistant in the Dublin area but clearly there are backlogs and there is a very heavy strain on staff in the loans and grants sections of local authorities. Serious problems are developing for people availing of the new grants, who, by and large, cannot afford bridging finance. I would appeal to him to indicate what variation the Department propose to allow in the appointment of additional staff.
Obviously, all local authorities have to operate within the constraints of overall resources and the embargo, but that does not necessarily mean that within their own staff allocations they do not have sufficient personnel to process loan applications of one kind or another. Lack of money is not an impediment to loans becoming available; but there are some staff shortages, particularly in the larger local authorities. We have already dealt with the request for additional legal assistance in respect of Dublin Corporation. There can also be delays unrelated to processing, such as matters of title, over which the administration may not have an immediate or direct effect. Sometimes the prospective purchaser is not made fully aware of such delays by the solicitors involved.