Vol. 403 No. 2
21 Mr. Pattison asked the Minister for the Environment the number of dwellings held by Dublin Corporation which are vacant and if he will make moneys available to Dublin Corporation to refurbish, repair and re-allocate vacant dwellings and also dwellings that are vacant and unfit for habitation as a matter of urgency; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Dublin Corporation have indicated that they have, at present, some 369 vacant dwellings. The management and maintenance of their dwellings, including the repair and letting of vacant units, are matters for the authority to be funded by them from their revenue resources.
Comprehensive refurbishment of designated housing estates under the Department's remedial works scheme would, include, of course, the repair of any vacant dwellings in the particular estates involved.
Would the Minister not agree that there is something drastically wrong either with the allocation of funds from his Department or, alternatively, with the internal management of Dublin Corporation's housing since that enormous number of houses are vacant and incapable of being allocated because of their state of refurbishment and shortage of funds?
I suppose it is quite a sizeable number all right.
If one's name is on the waiting list one regards it as a very large number indeed.
The Deputy will appreciate that, of course, there are no funds available to the Department for the repair of vacant dwellings; that is a matter for the housing authority themselves. They have spent quite an amount of money for that purpose. For example, in 1989 they spent approximately £30 million on that work and, between the years 1984 and 1988, approximately £150 million was spent by the authority on that work. Where we enter in is on the remedial works scheme which allocation I have increased quite substantially over the last few years as well.
Would the Minister not agree that, as Minister with overall responsibility for housing, there is something seriously wrong with the way in which policy is being administered at local level with State funds, if 380 houses capable of being allocated remain vacant because they cannot be refurbished while the housing lists daily get longer?
I would like to see the 369 vacant houses being brought into the housing stock and available for letting as soon as possible.
Will the Minister do anything about it?
As I have said, we do not have money available for that purpose. That is a matter for the local authority themselves. I might add they are spending very sizeable sums of money from their resources to that end. I will certainly encourage them to speed up that process.
It disturbs me that the Minister keeps repeating the figure of 369 houses——
——vacant dwellings.
The word "housing" has been used repeatedly here. For the record, would the Minister break down that figure of 369 between housing stock and flats? For example, would he not agree that there are in Ballymun 200 vacant flats which have been vandalised to the extent that they are not habitable; that there are 500 people waiting — because of the housing crisis existing in Dublin city — to go into those flats, on the waiting list for Ballymun alone? Furthermore, would the Minister agree that, due to cutbacks in the rates support grant on the part of his Government, Dublin Corporation are incapable of refurbishing even in Ballymun, 200 flats which have been vandalised, because of shortage of funding available to that local authority? Would the Minister agree that it is his responsibility and not that of the local authority?
Please, Deputy, we must make progress.
Would the Minister not agree that it is the responsibility of central Government to provide the funding to refurbish those 200 flat units at Ballymun alone——
The Deputy is making a speech.
I would have thought the Deputy would have been fair enough to admit that I have been the first Minister for quite some time to have taken a very active interest in the whole question of the refurbishment of the Ballymun complex. I have provided extra funding for that purpose. There is an ongoing programme there. There are 369 vacant dwellings out of a total of 36,000. There will always be some vacant dwellings, but the local authority have a programme to deal with that. In so far as remedial works are concerned, the Deputy will be aware that I have very substantially increased the amount of money being provided for that purpose throughout the country. I believe that is money well spent on the reinstatement of existing vacant dwellings, and improving inadequate sanitary services; indeed, keeping in good order pre-1940 and cheaply built houses so that we reap the best benefit from our housing stock. Very substantial amounts of money have been expended on that scheme over the past few years from a base of virtually nothing in 1986.
