Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 28 Feb 2001

Vol. 531 No. 4

Adjournment Debate. - Local Authority Housing.

Dr. Upton

I welcome the opportunity to raise this matter on the Adjournment. I call on the Minister for the Environment and Local Government to release £14 million to enable central heating to be installed in corporation houses. This issue is particularly relevant at this time of year, given the weather conditions we have experienced over the past few days. Elderly people are suffering particularly badly from the cold. Many of the people in corporation flats have paid rent all their lives, but most of the flats do not have central heating.

Elderly people in areas in my constituency, such as Cherry Orchard, have been corporation tenants for many years and have paid their rent. However, their flats do not have the benefit of central heating. This is particularly worrying because they do not receive a substantial fuel allowance. One of the complaints I hear on a regular basis from many of my constituents is that the fuel allowance is ineffective. It means they must pay an inordinate amount of money trying to keep their houses warm by other means. On that basis alone, consideration should be given to providing them with some comfort by installing central heating.

The RAPID plan was paraded recently by the Government. The purpose of this scheme is to prioritise the national development plan's spending on local authorities. However, no money is currently available under the plan for the installation of central heating to give corporation tenants a decent quality of life. Contractors were ready to install central heating in many houses if money had been made available to them. Huge sums of money are being set aside for projects such as Stadium Ireland, which will not benefit the corporation tenants about whom I am concerned. It is a shame the Government's priorities are not different and that a relatively modest amount of money, £14 million, is not available for this work. I call on the Minister for the Environment and Local Government to make this money available so that elderly tenants in particular, many of whom live in poverty, can be given some degree of comfort in their old age through the provision of central heating in their corporation houses.

Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children (Dr. Moffatt)

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue on the Adjournment. Local authorities were informed in 1994 that all new local authority houses should be provided with full central heating. The capital cost of these houses is met in full by the Department. The management, maintenance and improvement of rented dwellings, including the installation of central heating, are the responsibility of the local authority. For this purpose, the local authority may use the full proceeds of its rental income and miscellaneous housing receipts, supplemented, as necessary, from its general revenue resources. The most recent statistics available from local authorities indicate that, in 1999, £135 million was spent on the management and maintenance of their rented housing stock.

While responsibility for management and maintenance rests with the local authority, the Department provides 100% capital funding for authorities under the remedial works scheme to assist the local authority to carry out major works to designated housing estates, mainly pre-1960 and run-down urban estates. The installation of central heating may form part of the works undertaken in such cases.

In addition to the funding available under the remedial works scheme, local authorities may seek the Department's approval for the use of their internal capital receipts which are surplus to the requirements of the local authorities' housing programme and remedial works scheme for improvement works such as the provision of central heating to their dwellings.

Apart from the foregoing, the Department has no capital provision from which to fund the installation of central heating in local authority housing generally. Dublin Corporation wrote to the Department in June last seeking funding, under the area regeneration programme, of £16 million for the provision and upgrading of central heating in its rented houses which lack the facility. The area regeneration programme is a special allo cation which provides funding mainly for the upgrading of high density older flat complexes at various locations in Dublin city and it would not be possible to fund the provision of central heating in the corporation's tenancy houses under it. This was explained and the general position on the funding of central heating outlined by the Department in a reply to the corporation in September 2000. A further proposal received recently from the corporation is being examined. The corporation will be advised of the Department's response as soon as possible.

On a general level, the Department is keeping the issue of central heating in local authority dwellings under review. Definitive information is not available on the overall number of local authority dwellings which do not have central heating facilities. In view of this a questionnaire, which issued to local authorities in early January seeking information on a range of housing issues, sought specific information on the number of local authority rented dwellings which have full, partial or no central heating. The receipt of detailed information is awaited and, when received, should help to further inform policy in this area.