This is the first occasion I have spoken when my friend, neighbour and party colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Browne, has been in this House. I welcome the Minister and commend him on his recent appointment. I am grateful that he has come to the House to deal with this matter. However, this is probably my last compliment until I hear his response.
In the early 1970s the State through the NBA and local authorities, perpetrated one of the greatest injustices on the people. In a fit of madness, thousands of so-called system built low cost houses were erected to meet urgent housing needs. Houses were built from prefabricated units with electric air central heating units which did not work or were expensive to run. The houses had no standard fireplaces. These housing estates were finished in a spartan fashion and have been a problem ever since. The Minister is familiar with them because there are some of these houses in his constituency.
We in County Wicklow received more than our fair share of these houses. One of the estates concerned is the Oldcourt estate in Bray. This estate was designed by the NBA and built under the aegis of that Authority during the period 1971 to 1973. The estate contains 240 houses. After years of complaints, a refurbishment scheme was started. In 1985 a pilot project involving a limited number of houses was commenced. The refurbishment scheme proper got under way in 1986. Since that date the Government has invested £4.541 million in the programme. Only £100,000 was allocated for the completion of this work since the programme was undertaken.
Houses which were once the dread of the local authority tenants, have become prime housing stock and comfortable homes. The refurbishment scheme has been costly for the Government and for the people who live in the Oldcourt estate. They have lived in an estate which, to put it mildly, has been a disorganised housing site for the last eight years. The people endured these refurbishments with stoic dignity in the knowledge that at the end of the day, they would have an estate of which they could be proud, a place where they could rear their children.
Over the past two years the atmosphere in the Oldcourt estate has been transformed. An air of confidence has prevailed. However, this was brought to an end earlier this week when the Department of the Environment allocated £100,000 to Bray Urban District Council for the completion of the work in the Oldcourt estate. This figure is inadequate. It will not even cover the outstanding bills in respect of work which is already being carried out.
At present, Bray Urban District Council owes Wicklow County Council £300,000 for work which is being completed. Seven houses in one block still await refurbishment and completing that work will cost £150,000. Bray Urban District Council has asked the Department of the Environment for approximately £100,000 to carry out work on roads and footpaths, some of which are in a shambolic state because of building works.
The council submitted landscaping and gardening proposals to the Department which will cost approximately £250,000. None of these proposals could be regarded as luxuries. Residents are entitled to them because for 20 years they have put up with housing conditions which, at its most charitable, could be described as substandard. An entire generation has grown up in the Oldcourt estate without the benefit of facilities which could be regarded as a basic and fundamental right.
For eight years, the people of the estate have been living on a building site. I ask the Minister to review the derisory allocation of £100,000 for the refurbishment of the Oldcourt estate. A substantial increase is needed if the work, which has been carried out over the last eight years, is to be completed without further costly and frustrating delays.
The Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Deputy Stagg, who has specific responsibility for housing, is due to visit Bray at the invitation of Councillor John Byrne and Councillor Michael Ledwidge, the chairmen of Wicklow County Council and Bray UDC, respectively. I invite the Ministers, Deputy Browne (Wexford) and Deputy Stagg, to visit the Oldcourt estate and see what has been done and what needs to be done.
Two other refurbishment schemes are needed in the area, in particular, parts of the Fassaroe estate in Bray. However, the most urgent need is to complete the work which has gone on for eight years in the Oldcourt estate. The people in that estate have put up with a considerable amount of inconvenience because they were promised that the estate, like those in Kindlestown Park, Greystones, or Rockfield Park, Kilmacanogue, would be refurbished and landscaped. Given the State's investment of £4.5 million in the Oldcourt estate, I ask the Minister, to complete refurbishment work without further delay.
Until very recently the Department of the Environment looked favourably on Old Court in the review of expenditure proposals for refurbishment schemes at the end of each financial year. They have done this — and it is a broad hint to the Minister — because the direct labour scheme which is operated in County Wicklow has been a model. It has been very efficient and it has always managed to spend the Departmental allocations which in the past were available but unspent, to the embarrassment of Ministers.
I ask the Minister at my invitation to review this matter and to look around Oldcourt. If he were to do that and meet with local officials he would be as convinced as I am that the balance of the money would be well worth investing in this Estate in this financial year.
