We have had a fairly wide ranging discussion on this somewhat small Supplementary Estimate and I suppose it is difficult for Deputies, even, perhaps, for the Chair at times, to know where to draw the line. The money required is for two purposes, the first being additional finance to pay the increased number of private house grants and, secondly, more finance for the 12th round salary increases. It would, of course, be quite impossible for the Minister and his advisers to estimate around the end of March, 1970, what wage increases would come in course of payment during the year and we could not, therefore, provide accurately for these.
With regard to the sum required for private house grants, this is a very interesting development. It shows a most encouraging trend. One must record one's admiration for these young people who are purchasing their own homes. In most cases purchasing a house is the biggest investment they will ever make and I am heartened at the number of young people who are entering into this commitment now. If the booklet we produced—A House of Your Own—were more widely read I believe there would be an even greater increase in the numbers of people seeking to purchase their own homes. The demand for the booklet has been fairly substantial, but it could be much greater. I recommend the booklet and I suggest Deputies should advise their constituents to procure it. It is available through the Government Sales Office.
Steps have been taken to encourage the building of houses for private purchase. We have been encouraging local authorities to purchase as much land as they can, to service it and sell it to small builders, or to sell off serviced sites. There is a special subsidy for this. A number of Deputies referred to land acquisition. The three housing authorities in the Dublin area have acquired or are in process of acquiring sufficient land for about 24,700 houses. At the end of 1965 Dublin local authorities had acquired or were acquiring 9,000 sites; at the end of 1970 the figure is 24,700. For all local authorities, at the end of 1965 there were 25,000 sites acquired or in process of acquisition; at the end of 1970 that figure had increased to 62,000. That is a substantial figure and those who try to ridicule the Government are quite wrong in their attitude because the facts abundantly prove the point that the policy of encouraging local authorities to buy land was a wise one and was willingly accepted by local authorities and implemented by them. Vast tracts of land have actually been acquired.
Deputy Belton made a rather extraordinary statement. He said the Government had not serviced any land since 1960 onwards. He was, I think, referring to the Dublin area. It is no harm to refer to the part the Government have played in the sanitary services programme. About £15¼ million worth of water and sewerage schemes have been released in the past three years, never mind going back to 1960, and a great deal of the work has already been completed. Practically all the work is in progress. Deputy Belton's statement was most uninformed. The Dodder Valley sewer necessitated the laying of four main sections; two of these have already been completed, the third is in progress and tenders for the final section will probably be invited later this year. The cost of that scheme is £2.5 million. It will open up 6,300 acres of new land for housing in the Dublin region. It will also help from the point of view of industrial development.
Another great scheme is the Grand Canal scheme. This is being designed as a matter of great urgency. It is expected the scheme will be completed by the end of 1976. The cost will be £6.5 million. When it is completed it will open up about 11,000 acres for housing and industrial development.
The treatment works for Dublin sewers will cost about £3.5 million. If one lumps them all together the total figure comes to roughly £12.5 million. In Cork, major drainage schemes are being prepared, as well as water supply schemes. Major works are going ahead in Galway. I have personal knowledge of the work being done there. The investment will be substantial, roughly £1.5 million, and more than half the work has been completed.
There are big schemes in Limerick and Drogheda. In practically every county water supply and sewerage schemes, financed by the Exchequer, are under way. This is a policy decision on the part of the Government and Deputy Belton should never have made the sweeping statement he did.
I appreciate the part building co-operatives can play in the provision of more houses in the private sector and I have set up a special section in the Department to give expert advice and assistance to any group which forms a building co-operative anywhere in the country. I have circularised every local authority instructing them to give them every possible assistance, to give them whatever advice they need and where possible provide them with serviced sites. I have given a clear indication that where serviced sites are being allocated by local authorities a minimum of 20 per cent should be made available to building co-operatives. I would like to see much more of course because I am making a very strong commitment now to the co-operative movement and want to encourage it as much as possible. There will be no delay in regard to applications or requests for information and I have instructed that where grants are due for payment they be paid quickly to enable these groups to go ahead without any unnecessary delay.
We also encourage local authorities to pay supplementary grants in addition to the local government housing grant. It is a matter of regret to me that there are still some local authorities who are not paying supplementary grants in full. I would urge them to play their full part in the housing programme by initiating a full 100 per cent supplementary grant scheme in each area. I regret that Galway Corporation, of which I was a member up to a short time ago, have not yet initiated such a scheme. They have only a very limited scheme of supplementary grants available in that city in which there is great growth and a great demand for houses.
We have also encouraged local authorities to participate in the guaranteeing of loans to building societies. One of the first efforts was made in this field during 1969 and early 1970 when the Dublin city and county manager negotiated a scheme, which applied under section 42 (1) of the Housing Act, 1966, with building societies and with certain life assurance companies. The scheme was to enable the corporation to guarantee advances made by the commercial agencies in respect of package deal houses in Dublin city and county. Deputy O'Connell expressed some criticism of building societies and assurance companies and it is only fair that I should refer to part of the work in which they have been participating in relation to enabling people to have sufficient funds to build houses, and the way in which we have encouraged local authorities to participate in this as well. A similar scheme in respect of package deal houses was started by Dublin County Council and a similar scheme has been approved for houses in the Dún Laoghaire borough. All in all, about £1½ million was made available in 1970-71 under this particular scheme which is additional finance made available for houses for people who need them.
As the scheme is drawn up it indemnifies societies against almost any imaginable loss on their part arising from the making of a loan for house purchase. The guarantees are confined to new houses and may be given in relation to loans not exceeding £3,300, or the maximum of a loan which may be made by the housing authority from time to time. The limit on loans should ensure that there will be no question of recoupment of any losses incurred because the local authority are confident that they will always be able to realise at least the full amount of the outstanding loan by the sale of any house for which a guarantee is given. Alternatively they will use their statutory powers to appropriate the house in question for their own purposes.
The approved scheme enables many applicants whose incomes would normally be too low to obtain building society or assurance company mortgages. It also helped the Dublin Corporation and the county council to find capital for package deal houses which could not be made available from the normal capital allocation for local authority house purchase loans.
The building societies will normally advance twice the borrower's income to about 80 per cent of the valuation which they put on the house but under the above scheme, irrespective of income, they will lend up to 90 per cent of the valuation of the house, or the £3,300 limit, whichever is the lower. This is another valuable form of assistance to enable people to provide their own houses. It should also be borne in mind that when the Department increased their grants the local authorities who were paying the supplementary 100 per cent grant also increased theirs in line with the Department's grant, which does give an increase in the overall grant to persons who qualify. As the House knows, I increased the income limits for supplementary grants last year.
We also encourage local authorities to sell their houses and to draw up purchase schemes and this has been working very successfully. Many thousands of houses have now been bought by the tenants and the money thus made available goes back into the house building programme to provide further capital for house building. The question of the price of building land was raised. The part that this is playing in increasing the price of houses has been of great concern to anybody connected with house purchase or house building. The Government established the Kenny Committee a short time ago to go into this whole question. There are highly qualified people on this committee and I await with interest the outcome of their deliberations. It would be wrong for Deputies to ignore the difficulties which the Government are faced with in dealing with this matter of land prices. There are very serious constitutional obstacles and it is not honest for any Deputy to speak here and not to admit that these difficulties exist.
