Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 9 Feb 1994

Vol. 438 No. 5

Written Answers. - Housing Programme.

Brendan Kenneally

Question:

35 Mr. Kenneally asked the Minister for the Environment the policy of his Department in relation to the erection of rural cottages and houses; the discretion a local authority has in relation to this matter; whether there is any onus on a local authority to provide rural cottages in their building programme each year; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

Minister of State at the Department of the Environment (Mr. Stagg)

My Department's guidelines to housing authorities on the provision of local authority dwellings emphasise the importance of new housing to the maintenance of small rural communities; and specify that the building of isolated dwellings in rural areas should be limited to those special categories whose needs can be met satisfactorily only by the provision of such dwellings e.g. farmers and small-holders etc. who desire to live on their holdings, and agricultural workers who must live near their place of employment.

Furthermore, in the case of isolated dwellings, the housing authority should be satisfied that there will be a continuing need for the dwelling during its useful life. Subject to these guidelines, the extent to which rural cottages are included in their annual housing programmes is a matter for individual housing authorities having regard to the priority of those applicants whose needs, they consider, can only be satisfactorily met by the provision of such dwellings.