The House will now hear one minute statements on matters appropriate to the Minister for the Environment and to the Minister for Health. I propose to call on Deputy Jimmy Deenihan, in respect of two matters, Deputy Michael Finucane, Deputy Tony Gregory and Deputy Ted Nealon to make one minute statements appropriate to the Minister for the Environment. This is to be followed by statements in respect of two matters appropriate to the Minister for Health by Deputy Nora Owen.
Adjournment Debate. - Environment and Health Matters.
Between 1983 and 1987 Tralee Urban Council provided 275 houses. From 1988-90 they could only provide 16 houses because of the total lack of funding from the Department of the Environment. At present there are in excess of 168 qualified applicants waiting to be housed in Tralee. An analysis of the circumstances of the approved applicants, carried out recently, revealed that 122 of the applicants have an income of less than £6,000 per year or less than £115 per week. There is no way those applicants could afford to build their own houses or to pay rents of £35 to £40 per week for private accommodation.
The 1990 allocation of £200,000 permitted Tralee Urban Council to commence only six houses to accommodate persons on their priority list. This small amount will not have any significant effect in reducing the waiting list. I appeal to the Minister to approve the invitation of tenders for 24 houses at Gallowsfield and to approve the preparation of contract documents for the following schemes so that they may be commenced without delay when finances are available: seven houses at Spa Road, 30 houses at Upper Caherina and 12 houses at Rahoonane.
The Dirha Cottages were built in 1950. The stretch of road linking the estate with Listowel town must be the most dangerous in the country. Upwards of 250 people use this stretch of road on a daily basis, most of whom are children. Many of these people travel to Listowel on foot or by bicycle. Most mothers have to take their children in prams in order to collect children from school. There is scarcely sufficient room for two cars and a pedestrian to pass at one time. Over the past 12 years along this stretch of road ten people were killed of whom six were locals, five were maimed and 56 injured. There were four hit-and-run accidents and 58 cars were damaged.
Kerry County Council provided some funding over the past three years from their own resources to carry out road widening works at this location. The Department of the Environment provided a small grant. However, only a small stretch of the roadway has been completed and another stretch is left in an incomplete condition.
The two minutes available to the Deputy are now exhausted.
To avoid further deaths and injury I appeal to the Minister to provide the necessary finance to complete the work.
Deputy Michael Finucane has one minute to make a statement.
We are all aware of the housing waiting list nationally of 19,000 people. Limerick County Council's latest assessment showed a waiting list of 240 people. In order to get a house in Limerick one has to wait and wait. In the period 1983-87 when the Fine Gael-Labour Government were in office 500 houses were built in Limerick County Council's jurisdiction, an average of 125 houses for each year. The average number in recent times has been about 25 houses, a drop of 100 houses each year. The population has increased and more and more people are looking for houses, hence the long waiting list.
The time available to the Deputy is exhausted.
The budget gives very little hope to those on the waiting list. I would ask the Minister to seriously tackle the housing crisis.
Deputy Gregory for a one minute statement.
There are approximately 150 families in St. Joseph's Mansions. They have to live in almost Dickensian conditions with no washing facilities whatever. Their homes are in decay, window frames are in a state of collapse and are dangerous particularly for the many young children who live there. The emergency services, both ambulances and fire brigade, cannot enter the complex. The one low archway entrance is too low. This causes fear among residents for their safety in the event of a fire. Seriously ill tenants have had to be carried out of the complex by stretcher to the ambulance in the street outside. All of this arises from shameful neglect directly resulting from the refusal of the Department of the Environment to allow Dublin Corporation carry out essential refurbishment work. Dublin Corporation designated St. Joseph's Mansions as one of their top five priority schemes for refurbishment each year for the last three years but each year the Department of the Environment refused the corporation the necessary sanction. This is an appalling reflection on the Minister, and on his Department. I ask him not to pass the buck to the corporation in his reply.
One minute is available to Deputy Nealon for his statement.
The Government's recently published operational programme on peripherality schedules the Collooney-Sligo new road to start before the end of 1992. This is welcome even if belated. It will transform the N4 approach to Sligo as far as Carraroe outside Sligo. What happens then? Where does this new super highway go? Precisely nowhere, it ends up in a roundabout. It will simply pump its high speed traffic back on to the streets of Sligo. Of course, we will have a link up road from Carraroe, some time in the future. This would be a bypass road for Sligo town. It was rightly put into the 1989 programme submitted to Brussels but where is it now? I am afraid it has been deleted. If one looks close enough one will find it on the secondary list but what is its standing?
The time is exhausted.
If the Government can get funds for the private sector for its other jobs then it will start in 1993. It is in a lottery. I ask the Minister to restore it where commonsense dictates it should be.
Deputy Nora Owen has two minutes in respect of two matters.
I wish to appeal to the Minister for Health to make available immediately funding to the St. Francis hospice care team who provide a service for the people of north city and north county. The service commenced in 1988 and was welcomed by many TDs, including the Minister for Health.
Our Lady's Hospice in Harold's Cross in south Dublin provides an excellent service and is fully funded by the State while the service provided on the north side is not so funded. I ask the Minister to recognise this type of care and service which last year allowed 148 people to die in the care and love of their own family and see his way to make grants available this year of approximately £160,000 to allow this service to continue. This is a free 24-hour service which operates in close co-operation with the local general practitioners, health nurses and so on. Many doctors have told me how valuable they find this service. I urge the Minister of State in this his last task in this Ministry to give this funding in a caring, nondiscriminatory way for the people of the south and north Dublin and elsewhere in the country.
I would also like to ask the Minister to provide some funding for an organisation known as Turning Point founded in 1986 to provide a professional counselling service for bereavement, cancer patients and stress management. This organisation charges people who can afford to pay but very often see people who cannot afford to pay. I would remind the Minister that a similar type of service, the Clanwilliam Family Therapy Institute, receive a grant from the Department of Health of £10,000 per annum to assist in seeing medical card holders. Perhaps he would consider using this as a precedent to give funding to Turning Point. This service is similar to the hospice. It prevents people from having to take very expensive beds in hospitals. I ask the Minister to consider both issues carefully and in his last act in the Department of Health to make this funding available.
The Ministers have some five minutes between them to reply and they may utilise that five minutes as they think appropriate.
Deputies Deenihan and Finucane spoke about the housing situation in Tralee and County Limerick. I can tell them that the needs estimates submitted by all housing authorities are at present under examination and I expect to notify the authorities shortly of the allocation for their housing programmes this year. These will be determined by the relative needs and the allocation available for the overall programme nationally. The total of the 1991 allocation for the local housing building programme shows an increase of 43 per cent over the 1990 provision and is double the allocation for 1989. We are committed to dealing with the demand for local authority housing on two fronts, namely, first, maintaining the local authority housing programme at a level appropriate to the increasing need having due regard to resources and, second, going ahead quickly with the range of complimentary and innovative measures already developed as a more diverse response to social housing needs. I will be announcing full details of these measures very shortly.
Deputy Deenihan knows that the road from Listowel to the Dirha Cottages is a regional road and, as I told him in reply to various parliamentary questions, responsibility for the planning, execution and financing of works on this road rests with Kerry County Council. The local authority are free to deploy funding from within the discretionary road grants to meet the costs of such works. Discretionary grants totalling £2.423 million and £3.193 million were allocated to Kerry County Council in 1989 and 1990 respectively. The 1991 grants will be notified shortly.
Deputy Gregory spoke about the families in St. Joseph's Mansions who lack washing facilities. Dublin Corporation are the housing authority for these dwellings and are responsible for their maintenance and improvement. Under the remedial works scheme capital is made available to enable authorities to carry out major refurbishment projects to designated estates.
The seven estates to which the corporation attach the highest priority have been designated for funding. There are substantial outstanding commitments in respect of the designated projects and the overall level of demand under the scheme is very high. Taking this into account, and given the priority ratings decided by Dublin Corporation, it has not been possible for my Department to date to designate this estate for funding.
I can tell Deputy Nealon that I appreciate the desirability of completing the road from Carraroe to the new Sligo Bridge in phase with the Collooney-Sligo project and the timing of both projects will be kept under review. The Collooney-Sligo scheme is scheduled for 1992-95 at a cost at 1989 prices of some £20 million. However, the operational programme envisages that early commencement of the second stage from Carraroe to the new bridge will depend on the availability of toll-based private investment on other roads. Even without this investment I hope the second stage will start in 1994.
First, I want to pay a special tribute to all the people working in the hospice service for the very special caring and compassionate work they do.
Just over a year ago my colleague, the Minister for Health, Deputy O'Hanlon, allocated a grant of £100,000 from the Health allocation of the national lottery proceeds in respect of these services for the St. Francis Hospice home care team. The question of further funding for this project is being kept under constant review and will be considered as sympathetically as possible in the context of the many competing demands for the resources available to our Department.
We are aware of the excellent work being done by Turning Point, one of a growing number of organisations which has emerged to provide counselling and support to people with a variety of difficulties. The Minister for Health provided a once-off grant of £10,000 to Turning Point from the national lottery to assist them with their starting up costs.
More recently the organisation were in touch with the Minister for Health arranged for officials from his Department to meet with representatives of the organisation. It was explained to them that the question of ongoing funding for this type of service is a matter for the relevant health board, in this case the Eastern Health Board. The organisation were advised by departmental officials to contact the health board about the possibility of obtaining financial support and to see if the board could be of assistance in resolving their accommodation difficulties. The Department of Health have had no further contact with the organisation since that meeting.
The Dáil adjourned at 9.15 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 6 February 1990.