asked the Minister for Local Government if he is aware that a tender submitted to his Department by the Kerry County Council for the erection of 25 houses at Dingle was sanctioned on 14th July, 1954, and, if so, if he will state the reason for the delay in starting work on the scheme.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Tender for Houses.
I am aware that sanction to the acceptance of the tender in question was given on the date mentioned. I understand that delay then occurred because the county manager had not fully satisfied himself until last October that a definite need existed in Dingle for 25 new houses. I am also aware that delay occurred in the usual preliminaries to the contract. On my instructions, a direction was issued to the deputy manager on 22nd ultimo to have the contract documents completed without delay. I have received an assurance from him that the work will commence in about a month's time.
I see that this contract was sanctioned last June and that this scheme of houses has not started yet. Has the Minister any definite information that it will start in the near future or can he see that it will be put in hands as soon as possible?
So far as it is possible in the case of the Kerry County Council to get anything definite and reliable, I have informed the Deputy that I received an assurance from the deputy county manager that the work will commence in about a month's time. This is only one of a number of very bad cases for which, in my opinion, it is either impossible to get an explanation or even a good excuse. Tenders for the scheme of 25 houses in this case for Dingle were received by the Kerry County Council in October, 1953, but the relevant documents required to enable them to be examined were not submitted to the Department until the 13th July, 1954, ten months afterwards. Approval of the council's proposal for the acceptance of tender issued on the 14th July, 1954. The Department find it very difficult, as I said, to get either a good excuse or a satisfactory explanation for many of the things that are left undone, particularly in regard to housing, by the Kerry County Council. I hope the Deputy and his colleagues in the House—those who are members of the council—will take this matter up at the other end.
Mr. Lemass
Will the Parliamentary Secretary say what is the difficulty in getting definite and reliable information from the Kerry County Council?
I could not give the Deputy a satisfactory answer to that. It is difficult for anybody, even a humble individual like myself with only six or seven months' experience of the Department, to find an explanation and to give one, for the failure of the administration in the Kerry County Council to send up simple documents inside a period of ten months—and at the same time I know that at the other end they are blaming the Department for the delay.
In view of that, would the Parliamentary Secretary consider sending down someone from the Department of Local Government to take over the whole housing position in Kerry? He should send someone from the Department, otherwise no houses will be built in Kerry. There has been delay since 1948.
The Deputy and other colleagues of his are aware that I went down there—rather reluctantly; I did not regard it as an excursion—with the chief engineering adviser, the chief architect and the head of the Housing Department last October and had a free, a fair and a friendly conversation across the table with all the executive officials. Our point of view was made very clear as to what the Department required in connection with this whole matter of housing. The Kerry County Council is at the top of the black list so far as meeting the needs of the people of the area is concerned. I will do anything that Deputy Lemass, Deputy Spring or anyone else can suggest to try to remedy that situation.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary agree it might be wise to make a further excursion to Kerry, and that he take the public representatives into his confidence and discuss matters of housing with them when he comes again? The Kerry County Council has at all times made funds available without question for housing. I suggest to the Parliamentary Secretary that there is negligence on the part of the council staff or on the part of the Department. With regard to the amount of time wasted by the public representatives, I think it is a shame they should be treated in that way, and I suggest to the Parliamentary Secretary to take the public representatives into his confidence when he comes again.
When I went to Kerry on the occasion referred to one of the persons I discussed the matter with freely was the chairman of the housing committee who was then chairman of Killarney Urban Council and also with the chairman of the county council, and I take it the Deputy will admit that these people are competent to represent the viewpoint of Kerry County Council.