asked the Minister for Local Government if he has issued any instructions to local authorities in regard to permitting people to carry on shops in council cottages; if he is aware that grave dissatisfaction exists where county managers give permission to have shops in some cottages and refuse permission in other cases; if he will state the reason for the different decisions and indicate if cottage tenants intending to purchase their cottages under cottage purchase schemes are debarred from doing so if they have shops in their cottages.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Shops in Cottages.
asked the Minister for Local Government if he will take steps, if necessary by the introduction of proposals for legislation, to provide for an appeal to his Department in cases where a county manager has refused to grant permission to the tenant of a county council cottage to open a shop in the cottage and the tenant claims to have suffered an injustice, and can show that similar permission was granted to others in the same neighbourhood.
I propose, with your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, to take Questions Nos. 87 and 88 together.
Housing authorities were reminded in a circular letter of 25th May, 1945, of their obligation to ensure compliance with the terms of letting agreements in respect of dwellings provided by them, including the prohibition on the use of any portion of such dwellings for trade purposes.
I am not prepared to take steps, as suggested by the Deputy, to enable these dwellings, the rents of which are subsidised by the ratepayers and by the State, to be used as shops.
The question of whether an applicant under a cottage purchase scheme is a qualified person entitled to purchase the cottage is a matter for determinationby the housing authority in accordance with the provisions of the Labourers Act, 1936. That Act also provides that a vested cottage shall not be used for any purpose except the accommodation of the purchaser and his family or the accommodation of an agricultural labourer and his family.
I have no information on the other matters referred to by the Deputy.