asked the Minister for Local Government if he will state the number of houses (1) at present being constructed by Waterford Corporation, and (2) under construction on 31st December, 1959.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Construction of Houses in Waterford.
56.
Twenty-five unfit houses which were acquired by Waterford Corporation are being reconditioned at present, and work on these houses was in progress at 31st December, 1959. As the effect of this work is to provide fit units of housing accommodation, the dwellings are recorded for statistical purposes as houses under construction.
Is the Minister aware there are people living in these houses? If there are people living in the houses, how can they be available for applicants when they apply for houses?
The only answer I can find to this riddle is that they are occupied at the moment and they are occupied as unfit houses; the result of reconstruction will be that they will then be occupied as fit dwellings.
Would the Minister say there was an error in his answer to a question on the 10th February about the number of applications for houses in the Waterford County Borough? In a tabular statement the number of applicants was given as 130 and the number of houses under construction as 25. The facts are that there are no new houses being built for the Waterford County Borough, but there may be 25 houses under construction. That is where the error or the riddle came in.
I am not prepared to admit there was an error. As I said in my reply to the question, for statistical purposes this is the manner in which these matters have been dealt with. I did not institute this method of dealing with them and, therefore, the fact that the House or the Deputy may have been misled as a result of that tabular statement is not of my doing. Therefore I do not admit any error so far as that is concerned.
Could I say then that if the Minister gave the same statistics for every county and every county borough, that the same procedure would be followed, and that what is returned for houses under construction in the Official Report could mean houses under reconstruction and houses in occupation by people?
That seems to be a separate question.
It is not. It is the same question I asked the Minister previously. I asked him the number of houses under construction in Waterferd County Borough. There are no houses under construction in Waterford County Borough.
Is that not what the Deputy has just been told?
That is what the Deputy has known over the past two years since the Minister came into office.