asked the Minister for the Environment when he expects to approve the capital allocation proposal for Kildare County Council to build 100 houses at Newbridge, 40 houses at Kilcullen, 29 houses at Monasterevin, 10 houses at Ardclough, 18 houses at Milltown, 15 houses at Kilmede and 37 houses at Maynooth; when the proposal was received; if he has addressed any queries to the council in regard to the proposal; and, if so, the nature of the queries.
Written Answers. - Housing Proposals.
338.
I hope to notify housing authorities generally later this month of their capital allocations for new work to be started before 31 July 1977. It will be a matter for the authorities themselves to decide the works which will be started by them within that allocation. Kildare County Council's claim for their allocation was dated 3 February 1978 and was made on the standard forms which include requests for the appropriate detailed information about the various new schemes, rural cottages and so on, proposed by the council. It is the general practice of my Department to consult with officers of the housing authorities by telephone where any clarification of the detailed information is necessary. Records are not kept of such routine consultations.
339.
asked the Minister for the Environment when he received the layout plans for 51 houses at Kildare, ten houses at Ardclough and 12 houses at Prosperous from Kildare County Council; the proposed density per acre in each case; if he is in correspondence with the council about any aspect of any of the proposals; if so what aspects; and when he expects to approve the proposals.
These schemes come into the devolved works category and my approval to the layout plans is not necessary. However, since the housing authority decided to submit them to my Department for consideration, they have been passed to the inspector for the area, with whom the council's advisers would, in any event, be consulting locally under the devolved procedures. The inspector will convey his views directly to the council's advisers in the near future.
The layout plans indicate gross densities of the following order: Kildare, 8.2 houses per acre; Ardclough, 7.7 houses per acre; Prosperous, 13.0 houses per acre.
340.
asked the Minister for the Environment when he received the following proposals from Meath County Council: to build 42 houses at Trim; 14 houses at Julianstown; four houses at Kells; 14 houses at Dun-boyne; six houses at Kilberry; six houses at Clonard; six houses at Newtown; 40 houses at Navan, six houses at Skyrne; and the proposed density per acre, in each instance; if he is in correspondence with the county council about any aspect of the proposals in each instance; if so, what aspect; and when he expects to approve the proposals.
The only proposal before my Department received on 6 February 1978 from Meath County Council about the schemes listed by the Deputy is a claim for a capital allocation to finance the schemes. The procedure in regard to the examination of, and the making of a decision on, that claim is indicated in my reply to the Deputy's Question No. 339 of today's date about certain Kildare housing schemes.
As the Meath schemes are all devolved schemes—that is, schemes of sixty houses or less—the council is not required to submit plans for my approval. With the exception of the Trim scheme which forms part of an overall housing project in excess of sixty houses, details of the densities of the other schemes referred to by the Deputy are not available in my Department. In the case of the Trim scheme, the gross density is estimated to be 8.1 dwellings per acre.