Vol. 556 No. 4
48 Mr. McGinley asked the Minister for Defence if he has initiated discussions with overholders residing in Department of Defence properties; the stage of the negotiations; and if it is still his intention to evict these families from the said accommodation. [20733/02]
118 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Defence the housing status of army overholders; the steps he has taken or intends to take to ensure such families are adequately housed without delay; if he will give an assurance that no such family will be asked to vacate their accommodation until adequate permanent housing has been provided for them; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20848/02]
119 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Defence the total number of Army overholders who have been given notice to vacate their accommodation; if he has contacted his colleague, the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, with a view to providing alternative accommodation for such families; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20849/02]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 48, 118 and 119 together.
Married quarters are provided for serving personnel of the Permanent Defence Force. The Department of Defence has no responsibility for the provision of accommodation for ex-members of the force or their families. On being discharged from the Permanent Defence Force, soldiers are obliged to vacate married quarters within a number of weeks of their discharge and in this regard the vast majority of occupants comply with this requirement.
On 26 August 2002, the Department wrote to the occupiers of 54 quarters which were overheld, and requested that they vacate the quarters in which they were residing. The Minister subsequently met representatives of the overholders in the Curragh Camp on 2 October 2002. Since then, officials of the Department have interviewed the persons concerned to establish the particular circumstances in each case. It is now the Department's intention to work with Kildare County Council, the statutory body responsible for housing, with a view to resolving the problem of overholding, and it is hoped to meet officials of the council in the near future. All options will be discussed with the council, including affordable housing, shared ownership and co-operative housing schemes. Every effort will be made to ensure that the council offers assistance in all cases where the individuals are eligible for local authority housing and grant applications for mortgages in cases where overholders have been offered sale of the quarters. Each case will be considered on its own merits and the Department will be in further contact with each of the individuals concerned in due course. In the interim, no further action will be taken in the matter.
I am glad to hear the Minister of State saying that negotiations have been initiated with the local authority in Kildare regarding the housing of ex-Army personnel and their families. There is a significant waiting list in Kildare for local authority housing. Will the Minister say whether extra accommodation will be provided by Kildare County Council to house these families?
Does the Minister of State agree with the language used by the Minister in a statement last September? Will she not agree it was both inappropriate and intemperate to say that he was going "to lance this boil" and that unless the people concerned moved out within a month he would initiate eviction proceedings? Will the Minister of State agree that the word "eviction" has deep-rooted connotations in the Irish psyche? It brings back to all our minds the picture of the battering ram used to evict tenants in earlier centuries. I hope the Minister does not envisage throwing out families who have provided such valuable service in the defence of the State. The Minister of State should give an undertaking that no families will be thrown out on the side of the road.
The Deputy is very sensitive, obviously, about the issues involved. As I have said, however, every case will be dealt with on its own merits and the families concerned will be spoken to individually. A number of them, although not a majority by any means, have been offered the option of purchasing the quarters. Others are located within the security fence, so it has not been possible to offer them that option. I appreciate the Deputy's remarks concerning the housing list in County Kildare and that is why the Department is anxious to deal with each individual case. It is not the Department's intention to seek the eviction of persons who are not in a position to pay for their own accommodation. Some people are now employed outside the Defence Forces, yet they are paying a rate of €1.20 per day in respect of quarters that were built prior to 1954. Others who are no longer employed in the Defence Forces are paying up to €27 per week. The Minister has to examine how best use can be made of these quarters, while remaining sensitive to the needs of the people in those quarters.
I recognise the legitimacy of the principle involved but I hope the Minister's strategy will not be to unload the entire burden at the door of the local authority in Kildare, which is Deputy Durkan's area. The Minister should be responsible for this matter until everyone involved has been adequately housed, and no evictions should occur.
The Department will work closely with Kildare County Council and has opened negotiations with the various families concerned. We are talking about 54 quarters being overheld. There are 73 married quarters in the Curragh Camp and a further 54 – those are the numbers to which we refer. Further consultation and discussion will continue.
Question No. 49 answered with Question No. 46.
