Vol. 223 No. 8
asked the Minister for Local Government the dates on which tenders were submitted to his Department for sanction to the following proposals, and when sanction may be expected: (a) the building of 46 houses at Saggart, (b) the building of 14 houses at Santry, (c) the building of 24 houses at Skerries, (d) the building of one house at Newcastle, and (e) the building of two houses at Hoar Rock, Skerries, County Dublin.
13.
asked the Minister for Local Government if he is yet in a position to give sanction to loans for the building of 40 houses at Lucan, 24 houses at Millbrook and five houses in Rathcoole, County Dublin.
I propose, with your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, to take Questions Nos. 12 and 13 together.
Proposals for the acceptance of the tenders to which the Deputy refers were submitted to my Department on the following dates: 46 houses at Saggart, 24th September, 1965; 14 houses at Santry, 1st March, 1966; 24 houses at Skerries, 25th March, 1966; 1 house at Newcastle, 25th October, 1965; 2 houses at Hoar Rock, Skerries, 24th March, 1966.
I am not yet in a position to say when it will be possible to sanction the acceptance of these tenders or the loans referred to for the Lucan, Millbrook and Rathcoole schemes. I hope, however, to be in a position shortly to notify the council of a supplementary capital allocation for 1966-67 in respect of existing commitments and new works. It will then be a matter for the housing authority to decide the particular works to be commenced within the overall limits of the revised allocation.
Is it not the Minister's intention to specify the schemes to which this money is to be devoted, as he did in regard to Swords?
I do not think I should. It was not so much a matter of specifying in regard to Swords as that, as the Deputy may recall, Swords was represented as being an area which had waited so long, and so on. Through the co-operation of the contractor, the work did get started before the end of the financial year. However, the condition was that only money from this year's allocation would be available. Therefore, in a sense I did not specify, although it might appear as if I did.
The Minister put a limit on the amount?
My intention is not to specify in any case but to leave it to the local authority to choose for themselves.
