To-day, I addressed the following question to the Minister for Local Government and Public Health:
"To ask the Minister for Local Government and Public Health if he will state if he has been requested to hold a sworn inquiry into the repeated refusals (since 1941) of the Offaly County Council to sanction applications made for vacant labourers' cottages in the area by Mr. C. Swords, Clonmore, Edenderry, and the letting of such cottages to unmarried men and women who are not qualified to occupy them under existing regulations; if he will state the cost of legal proceedings incurred by the council in recovering possession of one of these cottages let to an unmarried woman in 1941, and what action he proposes to take in this matter."
The Minister replied: "No such request as is referred to by the Deputy has been received by me. The Deputy himself asked for a Department inspector to hold an inquiry into the failure of the local authority to provide a cottage for the person named in the question. My information is that this person's present housing accommodation is inadequate. He was recently an applicant for a labourer's cottage, but his application was unsuccessful. I have made inquiries in the matter, and have been informed that the successful applicant was living in a house in which there were eleven adults and one child. I should like to stress to the Deputy that the letting of cottages is a matter for the local authority concerned, who, if the cottages are subsidised under the Housing (Financial and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1932, must allot the cottages in accordance with the preferences laid down by the Housing (Loan Charges Contributions) Regulations, 1938, and they must consider and have regard to a report to be obtained from the appropriate medical officer of health as to the existing accommodation of each applicant and as to the degree of urgency of his need for alternative accommodation. I am satisfied that the regulations were complied with in the allocation of this tenancy. I have no power to review any allocation which has been made in accordance with the regulations. I am not aware that there were any recent lettings of cottages to unmarried men and women. I have no information as to the cost incurred by the Offaly County Council in recovering possession of a cottage let to an unmarried woman in 1941."
I regret that I find it necessary to raise a case of this kind by way of question or, as in this case, on the motion for the adjournment. I am forced to do so because this is not the only case of the kind brought under my notice during the past few years. This case has been the subject of correspondence between the applicant referred to in the question and myself and Offaly County Council, and between the Department and myself, over a period of three or four years. One of the Parliamentary Secretaries had been dealing with a complaint I made well over a year ago to the Department, and I had hoped from the reply I received on that occasion—I think that it was from Deputy Dr. Ward—that a future application by the man mentioned in the question would be given favourable consideration.
The facts briefly are: The applicant mentioned in the question is an agricultural labourer with a wife and four children. Owing to the fact that he was unable to secure suitable housing accommodation anywhere, he was taken into a labourer's cottage, occupied by his father-in-law, over six years ago. That cottage consists of two rooms. Mr. Swords, his wife and four children are living in one room and his father-in-law and other members of the family are living in the second room for over six years. He is obliged to travel four miles each way every day to his work. That is not a desirable state of affairs for any agricultural labourer who is expected to do a decent day's work for his employer. In April, 1941, Mr. Swords made application to the local authority for a house which was vacant in Ballybrittan and I assert here and now —I was amazed that the Minister appeared not to be in possession of the full facts and to hear him state that he was unaware that cottages had been let to unmarried women—that the cottage which was vacant in 1941 was let to a housekeeper for a local farmer. Her name is Miss Hickey.