asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health if he is aware that rents varying from 12/6 to 15/- per week have been fixed by Dun Laoghaire Borough Council in respect of houses erected by them on Monkstown Farm estate and at Temple Hill, Blackrock; if he will state whether the incomes of the tenants concerned are in many cases less than 70/- per week; whether an agitation against these excessive rents has been in progress; whether, as the result of an arrangement with the parties by whom the loans, for these schemes were raised, the rate of interest has been substantially reduced during the present year; whether the tenants in question have been given the benefit of the reduced interest rates in computing their rents; whether the houses in question or any of them were erected under the provisions of the Housing of the Working Classes Acts; how the rent of 15/- per week is computed in respect of the houses erected on Monkstown Farm estate; and, further, whether he is prepared to institute an inquiry into the conditions under which rents of 15/- per week are being charged to tenants whose total income is inadequate to provide proper food for their families.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Rents of Dun Laoghaire Borough Houses.
The rents of the houses provided by the Dun Laoghaire Corporation at Monkstown Farm very from 10/6 to 15/- per week. The houses let at 15/- a week contain kitchen, parlour, three bedrooms and bathroom with circulating hot water system. This type of house is above the general standard of houses provided under the Housing of the Working Classes Act and no contributions to loan charges are made by the State. The houses at Temple Hill are let at 12/6 per week. There is no information in my Department as to the present incomes of the tenants or of any agitation in connection with the rents. I understand that the reduction in the rate of interest on the loans obtained for the building of the houses has not yet become effective. The houses on Monkstown Farm were erected under the Housing of the Working Classes Acts. The rents for the houses on this scheme were determined by the local authority. They were presumably fixed with reference to the outgoings of the local authority on the scheme. I have no power to institute any inquiry in this case.