asked the Minister for Lands if he will arrange to have all habitable houses on Land Commission property given to people who are badly in need of housing as many of these houses are left unoccupied for years.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Land Commission Houses.
61.
The Land Commission's primary function is, of course, land settlement. Very often, the disposal of houses is inextricably bound up with the disposal of the lands on which they stand. The Deputy himself will appreciate that this is especially the case where the rearrangement of fragmented holdings is envisaged when lands, and any houses thereon, are necessarily held on hands pending the accumulation of a pool of land to facilitate the formulation of a scheme for rearrangement.
Normally where houses on lands acquired by the Land Commission are not required for ordinary land settlement purposes they are offered for sale by public auction and there are standing instructions that such houses should be disposed of promptly.
Indeed, I am greatly concerned to achieve a more rapid disposal of houses on hands and am looking into this whole matter at the moment.