asked the Minister for Local Government if he will give details of the manner in which the amount of the subsidy paid to Cork Corporation in respect of local authority houses built by them in (a) 1956 and (b) 1966 was arrived at; and if he will give details of (i) the cost of building and (ii) the subsidy paid in respect of the various types of houses built by the Corporation in the same years.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Cork Corporation Housing Subsidy.
52.
Mr. Barrett
In 1956-57 subsidy was paid by my Department on loan charges incurred by Cork Corporation and other urban authorities in providing dwellings, at the rate of 66.2/3 per cent of these charges where the dwellings were provided for persons displaced from unfit or over-crowded houses, left homeless through the collapse or destruction of their dwellings, or in need of rehousing on medical, compassionate or other similar grounds where their circumstances would not permit them to be rehoused otherwise. In a limited number of cases where houses were provided by the authority for other persons, the lower subsidy rate of 33.1/3 per cent applied. For the greater part of 1966-67, prior to the operation of the Housing Act, 1966, the conditions applying to subsidy for local authority houses in urban areas were broadly the same as in 1956-57.
In 1956-57 these subsidies were paid only on loan charges on the part of the cost up to £2,000 for a flat and £1,500 for a serviced house, irrespective of size. In 1966-67 the corresponding limits were £2,200 and £1,650 respectively.
The average subsidy paid to the Cork Corporation for a serviced house built in 1956-57 and at the then current interest rate was about £55 a year and the total subsidy payment to the Corporation came to £96,588. The average subsidy for a house built by the Corporation in 1966-67 is estimated at about £80 a year per house and the subsidy payment totalled £225,846, excluding any adjustment which may fall to be made as the result of the recent extension of the city boundary.
The approximate average cost of a local authority house in Cork city in 1956-57 and in 1966-67 was of the order of £1,660 and £2,620 respectively. Because of the different house types and standards involved these figures are not strictly comparable. Subsidy was not claimed for any flats provided by the corporation in these years.
Can the Minister give the subsidy percentage of the actual cost of the houses built in Cork in that period?
No. It would take some time to work that out.