asked the Minister for Local Government if he is aware that the commissioner administering the affairs of the Dublin County Council has prohibited tenants of labourers' cottages, in seaside towns in County Dublin, from letting rooms to visitors during the summer months; if he is prepared to state the reasons for this attitude, particularly in view of the fact that most of the tenants concerned are old people without families, widows or old age pensioners, who let their rooms with a view to making a few pounds to pay rents and rates; and further, if he will state why there should be discrimination made between labourers' cottages and houses built under the Small Dwellings Acts, or with the aid of free grants and loans from his Department.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Cottage Tenants' Letting Rights.
The Labourers Acts provide that a local authority shall insert a condition in the agreement governing the letting of every labourer's cottage binding the tenant not to allow any part of the cottage to be occupied by a lodger and, accordingly, such a condition has been inserted in the County Dublin agreements. The Commissioner for Dublin County Council is bound to see that the tenants of these cottages in the county observe the terms of their agreements.
The local authority has no power to control the letting of privately-owned houses whether erected under the Small Dwellings Acts or built with the aid of housing grants or loans.