This matter on the Adjournment has to do with the completion of the programme for installing central heating in the remainder of the local authority's housing stock. Some of the existing housing stock is old and some of it is new. In the past 20 years or so, it has been the practice to install central heating in every new house and flat constructed under the local authority's remit, but obviously in the past this was not the norm and there is still a substantial body of housing units which do not have central heating.
Last year Dublin Corporation borrowed €7.5 million to install central heating in half the outstanding stock, that is, in approximately 2,000 units. It cannot proceed further without borrowing more. It expected that the Department of the Environment and Local Government would be forthcoming with the funding but this did not prove to be the case.
The local authority intended to proceed this year further with the last section of the remaining housing stock which has no central heating. The old houses in Ballyfermot and Finglas were completed and it was intended to work on the houses in Cabra and the inner city, but that was not possible because the funding has not been made available by the Department of the Environment and Local Government.
The sum of money concerned is quite small – it should be €7.5 million rather than €7 million. That sum would solve much of the outstanding problem and would get rid of the anomalous situation in the housing stock. For example, the Department of the Environment and Local Government will assist in the refurbishment of any new house bought by the local authority and if the house does not have central heating already, it is installed. If it is a housing unit owned by the local authority which changes hands, however, it will not be refurbished and central heating will not be installed. It is a case of hit and miss, depending on the type of house a person is allocated. If a person gets a house purchased by the local authority, he or she gets central heating installed automatically. If a person gets an old corporation house returned to the housing stock, it does not have central heating.
What I am talking about is the completion of a job, which has already been started, with a relatively small amount of money. I ask the Department of the Environment and Local Government to regard this as a matter of urgency and to make the money available to Dublin City Council.