I move: "That the Committee agree with the Seanad in this amendment." The amendment is necessary in order to meet the case of a number of civil servants from the Congested Districts who were brought to Dublin, and who, in consequence of their removal from the country, have found it rather difficult to get suitable housing accommodation. It is mainly to meet their case that this amendment is inserted, and it provides that in the case of such persons permanently employed in the Civil Service the space shall be 1,500 square feet, as against 1,000 as mentioned in the Bill.
DAIL IN COMMITTEE.
SECTION 3.
1. In Sub-section (1) (c) after the word "exceed," line 7, page 3, the following words inserted "in the case of a house erected by a person who is permanently employed in the Civil Service of Saorstát Eireann for his own use and occupation, 1,500 square feet, and in the case of any other house".
How will that affect the Schedule?
Is there any protection in the Bill to ensure that the house which is built "for his own use and occupation" will remain in his use and occupation after the expiry of the present restrictions?
It has an infirmity in that respect. In reply to Deputy Good I may say I do not think the number of square feet is mentioned in the Schedule. What is mentioned there is only the price of the house.
Are the prices to apply to houses of 1,500 feet?
Yes, I should say so, and that will secure the point made by Deputy Johnson.
That is, the same price will apply to a house of 900 square feet as would apply to a house of 1,500 square feet. That is most extraordinary, and this will be the most extraordinary Act when it sees the light of day.
Question put and agreed to.
I move:—
"That the Committee agree with the Seanad in Amendment 2":—
The following words added at the end of Section 8:—
"Provided that this section shall not apply to the price of any material or appliance which is the subject of a contract bona fide entered into at least one month prior to the date of the local enquiry, of which a copy has been supplied to the Minister within a fortnight from the date of the passing of this Act or within a fortnight from the date upon which such contract has been made."
This proposal was pressed very strongly in the Seanad. On the first occasion it was beaten, I think, but on the second occasion it was allowed to be considered by An Cathaoirleach. It is intended to safeguard contracts which are bona fide made at least one month prior to the date of the local inquiry into the cost of materials, provided that such contracts are laid with the Minister within a fortnight from the date of the passing of the Act or within a fortnight from the date upon which the contract has been made. The intention is that such contracts made and entered into by the contracting parties should not be capable of being disturbed.
This is the first time that the registration of contracts has been raised, and as the application of the Bill is fairly wide, is it the intention, I ask, that all contracts must be registered?
Not unless it is desired to have them above the Minister's ruling.
The difficulty I see in connection with that point is, that a contract for additional work might be given before the actual contract is made for the housing. The whole question of registration is raised for the first time on this section, and I think those engaged in the industry will require a little more information with regard to registration than is conveyed in this amendment. It is a point that was not raised in Committee when the Bill was going through the Dáil. I think some more information and a regulation of some sort will be necessary if this section is to be made operative and useful.
In order to cover cases of contracts made before or concurrently with the passing of the Act, there is a proviso that a copy of the contract be supplied to the Minister within a fortnight from the date of its passing or within a fortnight from the date upon which such contract has been made.
That is to say that a copy of the contract be supplied to the Minister. It is all very well to supply copies of contracts after the passing of the Act. The point I want to make is that one does not know when this will apply and when it will not apply. A contract may be made for housing, but it may not be accepted. It may be accepted at a subsequent date. Then, apparently, if the registration of the original contract on which that housing contract was made is not made and registered in a proper way, it does not become operative. I, therefore, see great difficulty in the working of this section, unless there is some regulation made whereby there will be an arrangement for regularising these registrations.
It was, I think, to some extent because of objections raised here by Deputy Good that Senator Haughton put down this particular amendment in the Seanad. Whatever degree of security there was previous to this amendment being put down in the Seanad, it has certainly been very much improved by this amendment, so that, as far as Deputy Good is concerned, I think this particular amendment is an advance, and to some extent meets a good deal of the criticism urged against this particular section on the Committee stage. If it has not gone far enough, I do not know that without defeating Section 8 altogether it would have been possible to have gone any further.
The amendment now introduced is certainly an improvement on Section 8. This section, when it left the Dáil, was a hopeless proposal, and I think it is rendered somewhat less hopeless by the introduction of this amendment. With that object I want to try and make the section a workable measure. Under the section as it stands at present there is no arrangement at all for registration. Provision is made in this section for registration, and what I want to secure is that some regulation may be made so that registration will become a part of the scheme. If it only appears in this section for the first time, and no regulation is made, contractors and those engaged in the industry will be in some difficulty to know how to act, so that this particular protection that the President refers to may become operative.
The Deputy appears to have overlooked Section 11, which says: "That the Minister may by order prescribe all such rules, conditions, plans and other matters as are in this Act referred to as being or to be prescribed and such other regulations as may be required for the carrying into effect of this Act."
Will all such arrangements under that section come before the Dáil so that we will have an opportunity of discussing them before they are put into operation?
Yes; sub-section (2) of Section 11 states that "every order made by the Minister under this section shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made."
If the Minister would bring in some amendment under Clause 11 to make this particular amendment a little more clear and workable, I am sure I will give him, as far as I am concerned, every assistance in that direction.
I am not sure that the President has moved that this amendment should be agreed with.
He has.
I am not going to oppose it, though I think, as the President says, it is a weakening of the section, and to that extent undesirable, but inasmuch as I have been charged by one of the supporters of the Minister with having retarded this Bill— blocked it and retarded it—I am not going to allow that charge to be made again on this occasion, if it was ever true, and I say it was not.
I can certainly confirm that, and I am surprised that anyone should have made such a statement. Deputy Johnson did not retard the passage of this Bill. Any criticism he made, from his point of view or the point of view of the Party he represents, was helpful to us in considering the measure.
Deputy Johnson is not alone in that respect.
Question put and agreed to.
I move:—
That the Committee agree with the Seanad in amendment 3 as follows:—
Section 9.—In sub-section (2) after the word "manufacture" in line 52 the words "(including overhead charges and depreciation)" inserted.
Question put and agreed to.
I move:—
That the Committee agree with the Seanad in amendment 4 as follows:—
A new sub-section (4) inserted after sub-section (3) as follows:—
(4) An account on the double entry method, showing both a trading account and balance-sheet, shall be kept of all transactions under this section; and in such account all services rendered by any Government Department shall be charged at cost.
This is an amendment which was thought necessary in the Seanad to secure that all charges incurred in relation to the purchase, manufacture, etc., of materials by the Minister may be taken into account so as to arrive at the actual net cost. It has really much the same object as the previous amendment, and relates to the form in which the accounts and transactions, in which the Minister is engaged in purchase or manufacture, are to be recorded.
Question put and agreed to.
I move:—
That the Committee agree with the Seanad in amendment 5 as follows:—
Section 10.—Sub-section (2) deleted and the following sub-section substituted therefor:—(2) While any appeal to which this section applies is pending, the operation of the order appealed against shall be suspended.
Question put and agreed to.
Shall we take all the Bills from the Seanad together and report them together?
I am agreeable.