asked the Minister for the Environment if he is aware of the chronic housing problem in the Drogheda area; the number of applicants on the housing allocations list; the size of the applicants' families; how many of those applicants could be described as acute cases on the grounds that they are living in grossly overcrowded or unhabitable accommodation; how many houses have been built in the last two years in the Drogheda area; how many houses are currently under construction; and how many houses are planned for the next two years.
Written Answers. - Drogheda Housing.
113.
In law it is a matter for each housing authority to prepare and adopt a house building programme having regard to the established needs in its functional area. The authority concerned is also primarily responsible for determining the degree of need as between the various housing applicants having regard to its adopted scheme of letting priorities.
The number of approved applicants on the waiting list for rehousing by Drogheda Corporation at 31 October 1981, the latest date for which detailed information on needs is available in my Department, was 176, of which 131 are families of three persons or less and 45 are families of four persons or more. Seventy of these applicant families are living in overcrowded conditions and 64 are in unfit accommodation. In the two year period 1980-81 Drogheda Corporation completed 123 houses; a scheme of 55 houses is in progress at present and the corporation will shortly be commencing a further scheme of 63 houses at Moneymore. Further schemes involving about 750 houses for Drogheda are currently being planned though the time scale for the construction of these is not known in my Department.