asked the Minister for Local Government if all tenders for housing schemes which have been sought by Kildare County Council will be sanctioned and moneys provided for the erection of the houses this year.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Kildare Housing Schemes.
111.
My sanction is not required to the acceptance of tenders for any of these schemes, none of which is of more than 60 houses. As regards the provision of moneys for these schemes, I would refer the Deputy to my reply of 8th April, 1975 to his Question No. 40 in which I explained that I had increased the council's initial capital allocation for their 1975 local authority housing programme by £250,000, and that the position would be further reviewed later in the year. I have been informed by the council that their increased allocation is sufficient to cover their housing starts in the meantime.
Would the Minister accept when contractors are asked to tender for houses by a local authority that after the closing date the tenders would be opened and the contract allotted? In Kildare we are not in a position to give contractors this guarantee and schemes for which tenders have been received will now have to be listed in order of priority by us. This never occurred before in the life of this council or the former council. Would the Minister accept that they have not sufficient moneys to deal with schemes in hand?
I cannot accept what the Deputy has said in the light of the first part of the reply which notes the increase in the capital allocation of £250,000 and that the council have informed the Minister that the increased allocation is sufficient to cover their housing starts in the meantime. The reply also promises a further review later in the year.
Would the Minister accept that the fact that his Department agreed to have a reappraisal of the situation within a few months is an indication that we are now working on a shoestring budget from day to day and that nobody building houses can plan when he does not know what will happen after two months? A contractor needs to know at least a year in advance of when he is going to build houses.
I might accept that as a description of what is desirable but I could not accept it as a description of what has obtained in many councils for many years. That sort of situation is a desirable one but it has not always existed.