Vol. 542 No. 2
388 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government if he will investigate a situation whereby Cork Corporation is refusing to install hot water systems for their tenants; and if that authority is obliged to do so under the Housing Act, 1993, or another housing Act. [24269/01]
Under the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations, 1993, rented accommodation, including dwellings let by local authorities, must comply with certain minimum standards. The regulations require, inter alia, that such dwellings must be provided with a sink with hot water facilities and a supply of cold water from the service pipe from the public main or other source.
Cork Corporation has indicated to my Department that it is prepared to provide hot water facilities in any of its rented houses which lack this facility, where this is brought to its attention. I, therefore, suggest that the Deputy might forward to the corporation details of any dwellings involved.
389 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the number of local authority owned houses in each local authority that do not have a bathroom. [24270/01]
The provision of adequate bathroom facilities in their rented dwellings is a matter for individual local authorities as part of their responsibility for the management, maintenance and improvement of their housing stock.
A specific programme of funding by my Department for the provision of bathrooms in rented local authority dwellings operated until 1999. At that stage, of an estimated 700 local authority dwellings which lacked these facilities, over 600 were having bathrooms provided under the remedial works programme and in the case of about 100 dwellings, the tenants – who were generally elderly – had refused to have bathroom facilities provided.
The scale of this problem is now residual, but I intend that efforts should be continued to ensure that all rented local authority houses have bathroom facilities.
