I would like to know if the Minister would give the House any indication of the policy of the Government with regard to the finding of the Committee on Unemployment, particularly in regard to its recommendations on the housing problem. That is a matter of course that involves finance and, to be effective, involves, I think, the floating of a housing loan. If anything is going to be done during the year 1928 it is essential that the Government should get a move on quickly because building is very largely a seasonal occupation and it is necessary that steps should be taken to utilise as far as possible the summer months and the finer portion of the year when we have long days and comparatively fine weather. This is an exceedingly important matter at the present time because by tackling this question we would help to solve two crying evils, the evil of the shortage of houses and the evil of unemployment. That Committee was set up to consider measures by which immediate steps could be taken to relieve unemployment. The Committee acted in that spirit, acted with the greatest possible expedition, and delivered its findings I think in record time. I hope the Minister will be able to assure the House now that its findings are not going to be hung up indefinitely. Statements are being made these days on public platforms in connection with a by-election regarding the alleged intentions of the Government in regard to this matter. It is a matter that affects the whole body of citizens and we would like to have some authoritative statement, not a platform statement, in regard to a matter of this kind. We have before us the example of the Australian Commonwealth. In his last Budget statement, the Minister for Finance there indicated that the State proposed to make available in the near future—I think he meant within the financial year—a sum of not less than £20,000,000 for housing purposes, to enable citizens to purchase or build their own houses and in addition to help local authorities and others to provide houses for the people. That was done by a State that has at present a public debt amongst all the States of the Commonwealth over one thousand millions sterling. We have a comparatively negligible debt and I do not know of any other commodity for which there is a more certain market than housing. That market is available whether the houses are cheap or dear, whether prices are reasonable or excessive. I do not know of any other purpose for which the Government could more readily or more successfully float a loan.
I think our credit is good enough for the flotation of a fairly substantial housing loan and I do not think it is helping the national credit for Ministers or members of their Party to state emphatically on public platforms that that credit is dependent on the result of one single by-election. I take it that it is quite fair to make reasonable statements at an election for the purpose of getting votes, but I do not think the credit of the State should be publicly pledged or be said to depend entirely on the result of a by-election. I hope whatever the result of the by-election be that the Government will take this finding of the Committee on unemployment seriously and try to act on the very statesmanlike and practical proposals submitted, the principal one of which was, the inauguration of a ten years' continuous housing programme which it was hoped would help to solve the housing problem and at the same time give employment to thousands of men at present out of work. That would be of infinitely more importance and be of more interest to the citizens as a whole, particularly to the unemployed men, than any decision as to who was responsible for the starting of the civil war. A tremendous amount of public time has been taken up recently discussing that question, but this all-important question of the present and the future is being shrouded and obscured while these discussions are taking place. It is time that someone demanded that we should deal with the wounds that were caused by that civil war rather than try to determine the impossibility as to who was responsible for it. I would like to know if the Minister can give any estimate as to what are the remaining liabilities with regard to the property compensation. In the Estimates I noticed that a sum of over £500,000 is put down for the current financial year. Can the Minister say if that is all that will be required, or can he state approximately what are our full liabilities there? It seems to me that anyone having any claim arising out of the troubled period would have lodged them long ago and that the overwhelming majority of them would have been adjudicated on. I would also like to know if the Government proposed to take any steps, as they are entitled to under the special Act that was passed, to compel the owners of property in the devastated area of Dublin to rebuild. These are very nasty eye-sores, particularly in the principal street. Public money is available for people who own the sites if they would only build and I think it is time that the compulsory powers, which are available, were used to compel these people to build, or, at all events, to see that the sites are built on, failing which I think the Minister should utilise the grants and pass them on to someone who would be prepared to build under proper regulations.
