The question to which I consider I received an unsatisfactory reply from the Minister for Local Government yesterday was:
To ask the Minister for Local Government if in view of the serious position in Dublin County where a very large number of families live with relatives in county council cottages he will give favourable consideration to the amendment of the existing regulations whereby the local authority could rehouse these families and at the same time qualify for the full rate of subsidy of 66? per cent.
I put down that question because I was seriously concerned about a longstanding problem which exists in County Dublin, a problem which I see no effort being made to solve. Recently, we made a survey in ten areas in which we proposed to build houses in the near future and, in those ten areas, no fewer than 83 families live under the conditions which I describe in this question.
In the Minister's reply he states that it is a breach of housing regulations to have this type of sub-tenant and that these people should be encouraged to rehouse themselves. I know it is a breach but I also know that it is the most natural thing in the world for a father to take in a married son or daughter with or without a family when they have no alternative accommodation. That is what has given rise to the deplorable position with which we are confronted in County Dublin. I know the local authority can house these people by accepting from the Minister a one-third subsidy in place of a two-thirds subsidy, but I should like to explain to the Minister that in County Dublin we have an enormous housing problem outside this special problem to which I have drawn his attention and we are doing what we can to solve it. It will result in an enormous increase in County Dublin rates if we are to solve it within a reasonable time and meet the reasonable housing needs of the people.
There are special circumstances here, as the Minister knows; we have a constant stream of people from the country into the Dublin area and it is my view that we shall always have a problem of housing the working class people in County Dublin. In view of the fact that the housing problem has been largely solved in rural Ireland, where I think the position now is that there are more empty houses than tenants can be found for, the Minister's Department has been relieved of the problem of housing people in rural Ireland, and in those circumstances I think he should consider the special position which exists.
I put it to him that a family living in over-crowded conditions in a council house as a sub-tenant is no less a housing need than a family living in similar conditions in a non-council house. Quite frankly, I find it difficult to understand why there is this discrimination of one-third and two-thirds. At present in County Dublin the Manager refuses to consider these people when new houses are built and the vast majority of members of the council are reluctant to house these people because of the enormous increase in the rates which would ensue. The result is that these people are left as they have been for years past. I know families with five sub-tenants and when new houses are built they are not, or cannot, be considered. We are told they cannot be considered as long as there are people living in other houses which are regarded as unfit. I know many of the houses that are regarded as unfit and they are palatial compared to the conditions in which some of the sub-tenants live in County Dublin.
If we say these people cannot be housed out of council houses and if we have not alternative accommodation for them, we are really telling them that they have no right to marry. There is not a week in the year that I have not had priests and other people coming to me about housing cases. I want the Minister, in the course of his reply, to say if he has any solution or in what way he proposes we should deal with the problem. Not only have we a very big housing problem apart from this in County Dublin but we have embarked on very expensive schemes of sanitary services and regional supplies and many other such services. These problems are probably peculiar to people in County Dublin at present.