I heard the Minister suggest that the Estimate was framed on the immediate wants of the moment, but I regret to say that, in my opinion, the wants of the moment are really of a very pressing nature. I trust that an appeal coming from these benches to the Minister will not be misrepresented or misconstrued. In my opinion, true economy is represented by such a reduction as £300,000 on the Army Estimate. I respectfully suggest that false economy is represented in the reduction of the Housing Estimate by £75,000, because on this Estimate depends absolutely the preservation of the health, the lives and the well-being of the people. Upon the housing of the people depends the main fundamental for the uplifting and for the progress of human life.
Upon the housing of the people depends the real decencies of human life. The suggestion of the Minister is that the Estimate has been framed only with a view of the moment. The problem is so pressing, especially in the North side of the city, from which I come, that I make an appeal to the Minister to give it immediate and earnest consideration. I recognise freely that £1,900,000 has been spent on housing, but still, the terrible fact remains that in 1911 one-seventh of the population of Dublin County Borough, or 43,985 persons, were living four to a room in one-room tenements. From 1911 to 1926 the Dublin borough population has increased by almost 12,000 souls, and consequently, with that increase there ensues a greater density of population in tenement districts. Fifty thousand human beings are affected by the Estimate we are now considering.
I can tell the Minister, and I am sorry to have to say it, but I speak with personal experience of the North side of Dublin, that young children are sleeping upon the floors of these pestilential hovels. I suggest to the Minister, most respectfully, that the problem of the Dublin slums is a blot on the administration of the housing system. The cancerous growth of these slums is increasing steadily year by year, and yet we are now faced with a reduction in the Estimate. I hope we shall hear something from the Minister which will give us a hope of this problem being immediately dealt with. In the framing of the Estimate I would ask the Minister has any sum been ear-marked to provide dwelling accommodation at rentals, say, for two-roomed flats, with sanitary accommodation, of something like 7/6 per week? I would even suggest a lower figure if that were possible. I suggest to the earnest consideration of the Minister that people with incomes of from 50/- weekly downwards have no possibility of paying rentals of from 15/- to £1, and sometimes more. I do not lay these views before the House in any spirit of hostility to the administration, but I suggest they are worthy of immediate consideration.
Primitive societies held land in common, and to-day we recognise one of the greatest and most mighty institutions of the State—private property in land. I suggest to the Minister that there is one predominant want of man, based on every law, human and Divine, and that is ready access to the land. Although I am not animated by any spirit of hostility whatever to the private institution of property as it now exists I venture, with all deference, to remind this House that Nature's law must be obeyed; that the want for the use of land is inherent in every individual in this State; that it is as vital to his well-being as the air we breathe and the water we drink. I suggest, with all deference, that land, being limited in extent, and incapable of increase by the labour of man, is subject to special economic laws. What I would ask the Minister to consider in as sympathetic a way as he possibly can is: Is the State taking care that this primitive want of every individual, this easy and ready access to the land, is being provided? Can he do anything to see that that want is reasonably fulfilled? One of the greatest economists, John Stuart Mill, has laid down a dictum based on the consideration of land tenure in Ireland, that property in land is only justifiable so long as the occupier is a developer of that land.
I do not lay these arguments before the House in any spirit of antagonism, but I suggest that we have plenty of land to deal adequately with the problem. The density of people to the square mile in England and Wales is 649; in Germany, 328; in Northern Ireland, 240; and in the Irish Free State only 112. I have had an opportunity of travelling through the major portion of the British Isles, and I can speak from personal experience and say that in no quarter, on any of my visits, have I seen anything like the terrible conditions that prevail in the tenements of the City of Dublin.
There are many derelict sites which could easily be made available for building purposes. If they were made available, they would afford ready access to the inhabitants living in the midst of towns, and I, as a business man in this city, think that it is not an undeniable truth that it is for the major benefit of the city that we should endeavour to transfer all the population to a distance outside the city itself. I put these arguments before the Minister, knowing very well that in this House there is no person more sympathetic personally to the subject with which I am dealing than the Minister. I know that he has stated that it is one of the gravest national problems at the moment, and I hope he will endeavour to grapple with it at the earliest possible opportunity. I would like to hear if anything could humanly be done to endeavour to give to the one-seventh submerged population of Dublin habitable dwellings at what has been called an economic rent. I will only say in conclusion that justice should be done to the submerged one-seventh as readily as to the more fortunate.—Fiat justitia ruat coelum—let justice be done though the heavens fall.