Last night I referred to the Government's housing policy and I mentioned that the overall national target reached last year was 14,000 dwellings. This is quite an achievement. If we are to overcome the backlog and make provision for the increase in population I suggest we should step that up to about 17,000 a year. This will take into account provision of new dwellings, obsolescence of existing ones and the need for replacement. In the past decade we have greatly increased the tempo of the housing drive but we must never be complacent because the backlog is still great. I am convinced that, with the Government's policy and an expanding economy, not only can we reach the targets set but that these targets are adequate to meet almost any demand we can foresee in the very near future.
It is often said that there are thousands of homeless people in Dublin. This is said particularly by people who have not taken the trouble to examine the position. Actually, there are very few homeless families but there are very many badly housed families, many living in overcrowded conditions to whom society owes it to change their conditions so that each family will have a proper dwelling. I am speaking of local authority housing. We should create conditions whereby it will be possible for every family in need of housing to receive a house.
At present there are 2,500 dwellings under construction in the city and, at various stages of preparatiton and development work, there are just over 6,000 dwellings, giving a total of over 8,000 dwellings. If these were built to-morrow it would remove all the applicants from the housing waiting list. But nobody has yet invented instant housing and the population of the city is increasing all the time. It has been truly said that no living city ever solves its housing problem, but with the measures now being taken we will reduce the dimensions of that problem and we shall certainly eliminate the bad housing that has been a legacy for many years.
This costs money and the Government must build the economy so that it will bear this great strain on its resources. We can give some encouragement to the people on the housing waiting list. The job is being tackled by the corporation with the backing of the Department of Local Government and great progress is being made. Never before was the housing picture so bright. We should like to make it still brighter by pressing on with ever-increasing vigour until we have removed all the bad housing and then deal with overcrowding. At that stage we could say that, while we have not solved the housing problem, we had got on top of it.
In the first 11 months of this year over 475 people have been killed on the roads and over 5,000 injured. This may not be our responsibility but it is a problem which faces each one of us. This carnage must be stopped. Despite the excellent efforts of the Minister-on which I compliment him for his fresh approach; his ideas are revolutionary in some ways-if we keep up the present monthly average of deaths on the roads we shall go well over the 500 mark for 1970. Do we as a society appreciate fully what is happening on our roads? Does each of us, whether pedestrian, motorist or cyclist, play his full part in stopping this horrible slaughter? I suggest that the number killed in the first II months of this year is a great deal more than were killed in the Civil War; certainly it is more than were killed in this country in World War II by the bombing which took place then. We are not having the outcry against this carnage that would bring home to each of us the part we must play in trying to stop it. We hear a lot of talk about the demands made on the Garda Síochána and the various duties they have to undertake.
Let us say with truth that they have to undertake many duties for which perhaps they have not been trained. They have been trained for the prevention and detection of crime. I suggest to the Minister for Justice that he examine the possibility of having a corps of men and women who would not be members of the Garda Síochána to deal solely with traffic. The Garda would then be released from those duties. This corps would be employed in an advisory capacity and would educate everybody in good road manners and sense but they would have power to prevent abuse of the various Road Traffic Acts. In fact, this corps would bring some commonsense into this traffic chaos and reduce the frightful death toll on our roads. It has often been said that, if there were better roads, we would have fewer accidents but I do not think this stands examination.
There are 35,000 cars entering this city every day and we will probably have from 7 per cent to 10 per cent increase next year so traffic not alone ill the city but all over the country will continue growing. Therefore, in relation to the present number of vehicles and the expected number in the future we will have an ever-growing casualty list on the roads. We must deplore the terrible loss of life involved, the injuries people receive, and the material damage resulting from those accidents. If we had some outbreak which killed over 400 people we would then have an outcry to take steps to stop it. We are becoming too complacent about the loss of 475 people in the last II months. Those people should not have died on our roads. If we need new legislation to cope with this problem, or if we have to spend many millions on improving the roads, it will be worth it because the loss of this number of our population is a great one apart from the sorrow caused to the families of those killed.
At the moment the Garda are overwhelmed with certain duties which should be taken away from them. The traffic corps I mentioned would certainly help them. The Garda could then do the work for which they are trained. We live in an age of violence. All over the world every Government is trying to curb this problem. When I hear outcries against the action proposed to be taken against curbing this problem I feel we should examine the position as far as we know it and then ensure that the law of this country is respected and that any person who breaks the law in a serious way will be held responsible and dealt with accordingly.
Nobody likes to see internment. The very thought of this is abhorrent to us but the fact that we may have crime of a very violent nature in which innocent people may suffer is also abhorrent to us. If the Government do not do their duty in this regard that is irresponsible government. I believe the Taoiseach would never have made the statement he made on internment without having very concrete evidence of some possible threat to our society. I hope, in common with the Taoiseach and the people generally, that anybody thinking of breaking the law in a violent way will have second thoughts. We are a small society and I believe we have a great opportunity of forming this society into a community in which we would have the best type of democracy.
There are people outside this House who are politically minded, although they are not represented here. It is their right to be so politically minded; but if democracy is to live those people should go before the country at election time. If the people return them to this House as a Government that is their right, and it is those people's right to come in here, take over the reins of Government and run the country. The only way in which any group can form a Government is through the due process of election. As democrats we must guard that right jealously, that it is only through the ballot boxes that any Government can be formed. This is the basis of democracy in any country. Democracy was not achieved too easily by us here and we are very loath to let it go.
The problem of inflation has been referred to generally in this House over the last few years. This problem affects every facet of our lives. I want to pay tribute to the Government, the Congress of Trade Unions and the various employer organisations which have worked so hard in order to bring about a voluntary wage pact. The general cry was that something had to be done. The Prices and Incomes Bill was introduced. I do not know what the position about this but I want to record my appreciation, as a backbench Deputy, of the work of the Taoiseach, the Minister for Finance, the Congress of Trade Unions and the various employer organisations. If we can have this 18 months' peace pause it will do the economy and the people generally a great service. If we can survive this period without any major industrial strife, I feel it will be the shot in the arm which the economy needs. It will also give us back the confidence which has been shaken in us, to show that we are capable of bringing about in a true democratic fashion a wage and salary structure which will ensure that the wage and salary earners will be given a proper return for their work and that there will be no suffering caused to families by the effect of strikes and consequent loss of materials which, in some cases, may well hold back the housing drive.
We are living in an age of violence. We have seen violence in our own country, both North and South, in the past 18 months. It is fashionable to pontificate on the fact that we should have a rapprochement between our people North and South. When I refer to our people in the North I mean our people as a whole, whether they are Catholics, Protestants or Dissenters. I know that the higher echelons of the Unionist Party will hang on to their privileges for as long as they possibly can. I believe that we have common cause with the men who work in Queen's Island and Ballymena. The Belfast shipyards are going through a trying period at the moment and we should show our concern for them. I am not saying we could do very much for them but we should show our concern for any men who lose their jobs because of this problem.
If someone is injured in the North in some kind of explosion or some other kind of activity, we should convey to them that we are interested in their welfare and in their future irrespective of whether they agree with our political views. This may be described as a "do gooder" policy but it would be no harm if the people in the North, the people in the Waterside in Derry, or in the Shankill Road, or Ballymacarret in Belfast, could come to feel that after many years of division, whether on religious or political lines, they could come together with us and rejoice in the common name of Irishman.
When we speak of unity with our people in the North it is usually said that they would not join us because of our inferior social services. I suppose it is true that, taken as a whole theirs are better, although I think that is one aspect-1 speak subject to correction here-in which we are ahead of them, because here a person with a contributory old age pension can earn as much as he wants to without any means test. We also had a children's allowance scheme long before it was introduced in Britain. If we can build up our economy each year we can increase the national wealth and, therefore, increase the assistance given to the aged and the underprivileged.
This must always be our aim, not just to compete with the scale in Britain but because we believe it is the right policy. We believe the State must look after the old, apart from what the family can do. The same applies to the widow, the orphan and the blind person. We do not want to enter into a competition with the authorities in the Six Counties or in Britain. We share the concern of their social thinkers for the underprivileged. If our services cannot be equated with theirs at the moment, we are striving towards that end, not just so that we can boast afterwards that we have equalled their services, but because we have a deep feeling for humanity and we want to solve the problems which our old people and our underprivileged people have to face.
Other speakers are waiting to get in and I am sure they will make contributions which will help us as a people to solve the problems which are facing us. At the moment other Governments are facing the same type of problems. Parliament must devise ways and means to overcome these problems. I do not think there is any lack of confidence in the Government on the part of the mass of the people. On two recent occasions when they were given an opportunity they showed this. I hope that when this debate comes up next year we will have cleared up many of the problems and that we will be heading towards a new frontier in social advancement. This can only be achieved by having a wise, prudent and strong Government, which the people have at the moment.