asked the Minister for Local Government if there has been any cut back in the allocation for local authority housing from his Department to Cork Corporation.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Cork Corporation Housing.
29.
There has been no reduction in the amount of capital being provided to Cork Corporation for local authority housing. On the contrary, the amount of capital provided each year for this purpose has been increasing steadily and at a substantial rate. In this connection I would draw the Deputy's attention to my reply to Deputy Barry's Question No. 75 of 23rd ultimo in which I pointed out that I had already notified the corporation of an increase of £300,000 in the total amount of £2.3 million provisionally allocated this financial year for local authority housing in Cork city. The revised total of £2.6 million compares with totals of £1.2 million in 1968-69 and £475,000 in 1967-68. A formal request from the corporation for further capital for local authority housing has since been received in my Department and is under consideration at present.
Will the Minister agree that the allocation of some £900,000 by his Department for housing in Cork city still falls short by some £600,000 of meeting the planned housing programme of Cork Corporation? Would he further agree that the city manager had no option but to defer a scheme of 109 houses at Ardmanning, another scheme of some 40 houses at Lansdowne and that he also had no option because of the non-availability of funds sought from the Department but to defer the completion of land purchase in Cork for essential housing needs? Would he not agree that there has been a status quo situation as regards financial contributions injected into the position in Cork?
The allocation is not £900,000; it is £2.6 million, which is almost three times the Deputy's figure.
Would the Minister agree that his figure of £2.6 million includes money allocated to the NBA which, on the terms of contract with the NBA, was outside the normal housing allocation for Cork Corporation?
The figure is £2.6 million for local authority housing in Cork.
But that is including the NBA. Does the Minister not agree that originally they were supposed to provide their own finance, not out of the local government funds?
Where would they get their own finance?
That was in the terms of the contract advertised.
The figure is £2.6 million for local authority housing in Cork city as against £1.2 million in the previous year. It is not a cut back in the allocation of money for local authority housing; it is the opposite. It is three times as much as Deputy Desmond thinks it is. A request for a further allocation is under consideration.
(Interruptions.)
Housing is being provided at a rapid rate in Cork city despite obstruction of members of Opposition parties in Cork Corporation.
There was no obstruction.
Is the Minister not aware that Cork Corporation, and specifically the city manager, has sought additional moneys quite recently to the tune of some £1½ million, programmed by the corporation, from the Minister's Department and that the Minister was not in a position to give these extra moneys? Is the Minister aware that there are currently 1,400 families in Cork in need of local authority housing and that the city manager agrees that figure is extremely conservative and that a figure of 2,000 would be more appropriate?
There could be no question of Cork Corporation spending a further £1½ million or whatever figure the Deputy selected out of his head——
I did not take a figure out of my head——
——in this financial year. The capital allocation for this purpose for next year has not been decided yet and it is not appropriate to decide it.
(Interruptions.)
I am calling Question No. 30.