When I moved to report progress on this Estimate, I had already spoken at greater length than I intended, and certainly at greater length than it is my custom to speak. I was talking on the last day about the new departure initiated by the present Minister in his approach to local problems. Deputy MacEntee, who spoke earlier about that subject, had likened the approach of the present Minister to a royal progress, and I was dealing with Deputy MacEntee. It is, perhaps, not necessary for me to say very much more on that subject, except to reiterate that so far as I am concerned, as a member of a local authority—and I feel satisfied I am voicing the views of most other members of local authorities throughout the country—it is for the betterment of understanding between the Minister's Department and the various local authorities and their officials that the Minister should maintain the closest personal contact with these bodies. The more aloof a Minister holds himself from the members of local authorities, the more he and his officials will be viewed with distrust, and perhaps fear, by local authorities and their officials.
Another matter which was dealt with by the Minister and by Deputy MacEntee is roads. I should imagine there is fairly general agreement that the roads should be made as good as possible in as short a space of time as possible. Making the roads safe for traffic is a matter of paramount importance. I am not at all certain, when we set about making the surfaces of the roads good, straightening them out and putting them into such a condition that they can easily and comfortably carry fast-moving traffic, that we are making them safe. Until we arrive at the stage when we can afford wide thoroughfares all over the country, the Minister should direct his engineers seriously to consider road safety in relation to road improvement. It is my own belief that where roads are put into such a condition that local authorities or their engineers are satisfied that they are good from the point of view of travel comfort, very frequently those roads become dangerous—veritable deathtraps—so far as pedestrians are concerned. That has happened and it may continue to happen.
Deputy Childers, when he was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Local Government, carried out a well sustained campaign in the interests of road safety. That campaign was good and useful and it should be encouraged by the present Minister. I would like to see the local authorities, in conjunction with the Garda, sponsoring some such publicity campaign. This question of road safety is bound up with the question of road maintenance and the better surfacing of the roads. One expedient which might be adopted is an extension of the system of traffic lights throughout the country, and not only in the cities or big towns. I do not intend to develop that point, but I think Deputies will appreciate the obvious difference in slowing down and generally controlling traffic on what I have described as fast roads which, in fact, are very frequently dangerous roads.
The last matter I want to touch on is a matter which Deputy MacEntee dealt with last Thursday, that is, the assertion—perhaps Deputy MacEntee did not put it quite as strongly as that —the fear expressed by Deputy MacEntee that the issue of licences for the building of all houses, except those built by local authorities and subsidy houses, was prohibited by this Government. Deputy MacEntee, in column 787 of the Dáil debates of last Thursday, spoke of the Minister's decision:—
"the decision, as I understand it— I may be wrong, but this is what I have been told—to refuse licences for any house building except houses which are built by local authorities or subsidy houses."
In the next column, he said, building his case on what he has been told, on what he says he is not sure of, and what, in fact, may not be the case:—
"That is an attitude that is contrary to natural justice. It is, as I have said, an expression of class prejudice which is unjust, shortsighted and stupid."
All I want to say in relation to that is that, if the fear expressed by Deputy MacEntee is correct, it is a matter of which this House should take serious cognisance, if for no other reason than that Deputy MacEntee appeared to have been speaking in what the Minister for Finance described as one of his more solemn moods. I think it would be completely wrong to shut down completely on the building of any particular class of house. I have not heard that it is so and I do not believe it is so, but it is a matter the Minister can tell us about in his reply.
If the position, however, is that priority in house building is given to local authorities and to subsidy houses, that policy is one which will have the wholehearted support of Deputies and certainly those on this side. I do not think there is any doubt at all that, in so far as we can ensure it, we should give priority to those who require houses to be built by local authorities and subsidy houses. That is sound, and, so far as priority is concerned, these classes of houses should get it. I would not agree that others should be completely prohibited. If it is possible to give licences for the building of other types of houses, these licences should be issued, and if there is any truth in what Deputy MacEntee says he believes to be the case, I should like to join with him in appealing to the Minister to reconsider the decision. I do not believe, however, that there is any truth in it. I do not believe it is the case. I think that at most what has happened is that priority is being given to one particular type as against another.
I have tried in my remarks to avoid questions of controversy, because I believe the Minister's Department is one of the most important Departments in the State, in so far as it is absolutely essential, if we are to have good local administration, that the Minister should get to know the local authorities and should do that on, so to speak, a non-political basis. Consequently, I believe that this Estimate is one which should and can be discussed without what I have described as the introduction of politics.
