The House will now hear four statements from Deputy Bernard Allen, three of which are appropriate to the Minister for the Environment and one which is appropriate to the Minister for Health.
Adjournment Debate. - Environment and Health Matters.
My first statement relates to the plight of the 20,000 persons on local authority housing waiting lists. We have heard much in recent days about the plight of the Kurds and it is only right that I refer this evening to the plight of the 20,000 families on housing lists, 1,600 of them live in Cork city. Despite all the hype and public relations exercises carried out by the Minister in recent months this problem is getting worse. We have a social cesspool at present. Yet the only response we have got from the Minister is that one house was built in Cork city two years ago and in excess of 20 houses were built last year. The Minister indicated yesterday that the local authority in Cork will receive enough money this year to build 50 houses. Yet the local authority only received £350,000 for new starts in Cork city this year. This amount was presented differently by the Minister but the bottom line is that it will only build about 10 houses.
At present in Cork a man, his wife and three children are forced to live in a caravan on an itinerant halting site because they cannot get a house in Cork city. I am sure similar situations obtain throughout the country. People who cannot get houses are being subsidised by health boards to the tune of £50 per week for rented accommodation. The self-help programme in the housing programme is a sick joke. While much publicity was given to the self-help programme it will only have a marginal effect as over 75 per cent of the people on local authority housing waiting lists have to depend on social welfare. There is no way these people can help themselves; they have to depend on the State.
The Minister should set up a crash programme of house purchase or construction to deal with the appalling waiting lists for local authority housing. These people do not have any hope of getting housing at present. I ask the Minister to set up a realistic programme instead of the series of half baked ideas we heard from him in February.
The capital allocation to the housing authorities for the traditional local authority housing construction programme in 1991 totalled £45.6 million. This is an increase of £11.7 million or 35 per cent over the final allocation during 1990. These allocations will finance the commencement of 1,500 houses and the completion of 1,300 houses in 1991, with a further 1,300 houses in progress at the end of the year.
Needs are not met only by the construction of new local authority houses. One must also take into account the vacancies which arise in the housing stock. Casual vacancies provided new lettings for over 4,000 applicants in 1990 and will add substantially to the number of lettings again in 1991.
This year, the traditional local authority housing construction programme will be complemented by the initiatives in the plan for social housing. These include an innovative scheme of repairs to private houses owned and occupied by persons who are on local authority waiting lists and who would otherwise require housing from the housing authority.
The plan is the most comprehensive response ever to social housing needs in this country. It is recognised as such by many of the agencies who deal with social housing. It significantly broadens the options available to local authorities in meeting housing needs, it allows for a very much increased role for voluntary housing agencies and, through shared ownership, the mortgage allowance for tenants and the scheme for the provision of subsidised sites will help marginal house purchasers on the waiting lists.
The new measures, when fully operational, will result in the provision of about 5,000 units per annum to complement the local authority housing programme. The measures are a clear indication of the Government's commitment to the provision of housing for persons on the local authority housing lists. Instead of indulging in criticism which is less than constructive, every Deputy should do this best to support and promote the imaginative and innovative approach set out in the Government's plans. That is the way forward in the future and the Deputy and his colleagues know that and should support the plan rather than indulging in this useless negative attitude.
The House will now hear a second two-minute statement from Deputy Allen.
My statement is about the Minister's failure to instruct the local authorities about the provisions contained in the recent housing programme. I am not being pessimistic or negative in dealing with that programme but aside from the glossy brochure we got, and the hype and the television cameras——
The Deputy is a fair man for hype himself.
The Minister will get his say later. Apart from all that, we have heard very little and people are waiting to find out how they can benefit from the programme. Detailed provisions, as a result of many of the announcements made, have not been circulated to the local authorities. Up to last weekend local authorities had not received a circular letter advising them how to implement the provisions of the much hyped programme for housing, for example, in relation to people who want to surrender their local authority houses and who are expecting a grant. There has been no word yet to the local authorities from the Minister in relation to the self-help schemes. If the Minister is interested in getting people housed he should let the local authorities know his detailed thoughts and he should not just be blinded by the television camera lights and the hype. On the ground, the programme is not being implemented because the details of the programme have not been passed on to the local authorities. The Minister should not wait until the eve of the election before announcing these provisions again. The Minister should let the local authorities have them now to enable them to get on with the job as well as they can.
I am pleased that Deputy Allen recognises how important the social housing programme is and that he is anxious to implement this as quickly as possible. I support the Deputy's point of view there.
The Plan for Social Housing is a document of the greatest significance in the social housing area and has been acknowledged as such in many quarters. It is a policy document which contains new thinking on the approach to the provision of decent and suitable housing for households that are not in a position to provide it from their own resources. It contains radical new measures to improve access to housing, to expand housing choice and to improve the position of both public and private tenants. The appendices describe the various new schemes in considerable detail.
On the day the plan was published copies were circulated to all local authorities. Subsequently, I explained the plan to local authority managers and their senior housing staff, and officials of my Department have made detailed presentations to them on the new measures. That is continuing.
Since the publication of the plan, the housing division of my Department have been working flat out on the implementation of the various initiatives indicated. Circulars have already issued on the new loan and income limits for housing loans, the new terms of the voluntary housing scheme and the scheme for communal facilities.
The first scheme of houses under the rental subsidy scheme has already been approved and the circular giving the full operational details of this scheme is nearly ready for issue.
The mortgage allowance is available to qualified tenants purchasing a house for themselves since 14 February and detailed procedures are being worked out with lending agencies. That negotiation as the Deputy will understand could not take place until after the publication of the scheme.
The plan made it quite clear that there were some legal difficulties attaching to the immediate introduction of some of the new measures, notably, the shared ownership system and the scheme of improvement works in lieu of local authority housing. In order to avoid all possible delay in bringing these important schemes into force, I have sought expert legal advice on how it might be possible to devise interim arrangements which would allow the schemes to proceed in advance of the legislation.
The new Housing Bill which is needed to give full effect to some of the new schemes is being urgently prepared.
The plan is to be welcomed in its scope and vision. I can assure the House that I and my Department will spare no effort to ensure its early and successful implementation.
I will now hear the third statement from Deputy Allen.
This relates to the delay in the commencement of the downstream crossing of the River Lee to the east of Cork city. As the Minister knows, Cork Corporation and Cork County Council carried out a fairly extensive and expensive feasibility study some years ago. That was followed by a public inquiry which came out in favour of a tunnel. A number of years later, the Minister decided to reopen the inquiry. That resulted in serious delays in the development of the downstream crossing. According to a reply to a Dáil question which I received yesterday, the reopening of the inquiry cost £400,000. The Minister has the report and the Taoiseach promised a decision by Easter, in my presence in Cork, at the opening of the extension to the terminal building in Cork Airport and subsequently at the Marina industrial site. We still have not a decision and the Minister's reply to me in the Dáil yesterday was that he was studying the detailed complex issues and that he could not say when there would be a decision. I forecast here tonight that we will have a decision from the Minister with great publicity just before the local elections.
That did not occur to me.
I know the Minister is innocent, but I am not so innocent.
But I am glad the Deputy put the notion into the Minister's mind.
I appeal to the Minister in relation to this. The downstream crossing is the last piece in the jigsaw, the last part of a complex roads system around Cork city. There are multi-million pound roads in Cork put there by the present Minister and previous Ministers, but they are leading nowhere. We need the last link, the downstream crossing. The development of Cork is being held up because of the Minister's indecision.
I am glad that at last a member of the Opposition is putting on the record that the Minister for the Environment, Deputy Flynn, is the greatest roads builder since the foundation of this State.
I said present and previous Ministers. The Minister is not getting all the credit.
The Deputy at least accepts that I have introduced major roads developments in this country, dealing with roads in a proper fashion and bringing them up to European standards.
Deputy Allen must appreciate that before work on a downstream crossing of the River Lee can commence, there are a number of statutory procedures which must be gone through. These procedures include the holding of a local public inquiry and the consideration by me of the transcript of evidence taken at the inquiry, the report of the inspectors who held the inquiry and other relevant report.
Following the local public inquiry held in October 1985, a number of submissions were received on the relative merits, including costs, of a tunnel and the lowmedium level bridge. In addition, I though it necessary to order the reopening of the inquiry to consider up to date information on harbour, road traffic and cost estimates. The reopened inquiry also considered a possible option of a low to medium level open-span bridge. After two days of hearings, on 24 and 25 July, the inquiry was adjourned and was reconvened for a further three days starting on 12 December 1990.
The transcript of the evidence taken at the inquiry and the report of the inspectors who held the inquiry have now been submitted to me. They constitute a very considerable volume of documentation.
As I told the Deputy in response to a Dáil question yesterday, I am now considering the report but, because of the importance and complexity of the matters at issue, I am not in a position to say when precisely a decision will be made. I would only add that there has been no avoidable delay on my part at any stage in dealing with this project which is scheduled, in the operational programme on peripherality, to start in 1993. It has been already stated when it is due to start. I have to carry out certain responsibilities in law and I intend to take my time and do it properly.
I wish to raise the issue of the long waiting lists for ear, nose and throat surgery in the Southern Health Board region, in particular Cork city. Despite all the words spoken both inside and outside the House, the position is still very disturbing. A public patient in Cork city will have to wait for between one and two years for a tonsillectomy or an operation to remove adenoids or to correct speech or hearing defects. However if one has the resources and can go private they can have this operation carried out within two weeks.
Who are affected most by this? The answer is those children aged between three and a half and seven during their formative years. Their performances in school are being affected very badly and if their parents cannot afford to have the operation carried out privately they will find it impossible to have surgery carried out. I am aware of the families who have been forced to go to credit unions, banks and loan sharks because they needed to have operations carried out privately. That is a scandal. It is also a scandal that a differentiation is made between the haves and have nots.
An attempt was made to improve the position by appointing an ear, nose and throat surgeon at the South Infirmary in Cork city but that appointment was blocked either by the medical organisations or the Department. I am not sure which of them was responsible but I would like to know the truth. As a result some children will have to wait. I appeal to the Minister of State to intervence in this case where the appointment of a competent and suitably qualified man was blocked for either political or medical reasons. The House deserves a statement on that matter.
I hope there will be full consultations between the Southern Health Board, the voluntary hospitals in the Cork area and the Minister's officials in an effort to bring about an improvement as it is the weakest and the poorest who are being affected most.
Waiting lists for certain modern medical elective procedures are an inevitable part of a sophisticated health care system like our own. Although ear, nose and throat surgery falls into this category I would stress that improvements have been made during the past 18 months. The Government recognised that a problem with waiting lists existed in the ENT area and we took specific steps to deal with this problem. Extra resources were provided and the result has been a reduction in the waiting lists for ENT surgery for both adults and children.
The latest information available shows that ENT waiting lists nationally decreased by almost 9 per cent between April 1990 and February of this year. In general, the situation with regard to ENT services has improved throughout the country as a result of specific measures which the Minister for Health has taken on behalf of the Government. In Temple Street Hospital, for example, the waiting list decreased by 64 per cent from November 1989 to March 1991. At the South Infirmary Victoria Hospitals in Cork, which is the regional ENT centre for the Southern Health Board area, the waiting list has decreased by over 45 per cent since January of last year.
Can the Minister of State give us the figures?
It is our objective to ensure that this improved level of service will be maintained. Deputy Allen recognised in this contribution that we have made a trojan effort. I do not have the specific information he requested pertaining to the proposed appointment in the Cork hospital but I will refer that matter to the Minister for Health who I am sure will be in touch with the Deputy about that matter. I am certain, as somebody who was in the Department for almost two years, that we have made major progress in this area and I think the country and the Deputy recognise this.
The Minister of State quoted percentages. It is a pity the Minister was not here.
The Dáil adjourned at 5.35 p.m. until 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday, 23 April 1991.