asked the Minister for Local Government when he expects to be in a position to hand over completed houses for the Ballymun scheme to Dublin Corporation for allocation to tenants.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Ballymun Housing Scheme.
24.
Some 80 houses are at present under construction. The handover of houses for occupation is dependent on site-organisation which, as I informed the corporation in December last, was severely set back by weather conditions. It should be possible in the next few weeks, in consultation with the corporation, to agree a handing-over programme with the contractors.
Is this contract not falling well behind the Minister's anticipation of completion?
No; I am glad to say it is not. The handing over is behind time due to the factors I have already indicated to the corporation, but the overall period for the total completion is still not being extended, nor is there any effort to extend it.
Could the Minister give any estimate of the total number which will be handed over in Ballymun this year?
I expect somewhere in the region of 600 during the year.
Is it not the real reason that these have not been handed over that the Minister has refused until the Dublin Corporation fleeces the wouldbe tenants and charges them rents far in excess of those now being paid in order to pay for the scheme? It is not the weather that is to blame. There has been nothing unusual about the weather this year compared with other years and the Minister knows that.
The Deputy is codding himself. If I wanted to do him a bad turn, I would ask him to find his way in and out of the place. He is quite open to go and see the situation for himself.
I am entirely familiar with it. I have been up to my "oxters" in mud there.
The Deputy has been up to his "oxters" in mud and yet he wants to hand over the houses.
They could have been in the houses three months ago but the Minister did not want to hand them over.
That is not true, and the Deputy knows it.
It is true.
It is not true.