This is a Bill to enlarge the provision of one quarter of a million pounds provided under the Principal Act. Up to the present we have earmarked a sum of £230,000 in round figures out of that sum, and if we did not make further provision now sanctions would have to stop about the end of next month. The fact that we have earmarked £230,000 does not mean that anything like that sum has been spent. In fact, only about £45,000 has so far been issued. The time required to complete a house in very many cases is almost two years. The person cannot give up the time that he would normally devote to his farm work to building. He therefore does the building when there is not very much doing in his ordinary farm work. As well as that, there is only a limited number of handymen in the Gaeltacht and it frequently happens that a person cannot get a handyman when he wants one, such as a carpenter or a stone mason.
I am quite satisfied with the progress which has been made under the Act, and from the expressions of opinion I have heard from all sides in the Dáil I believe that the operation of the Act has given very general satisfaction. The inspectors engaged on this work were selected not only because of their competence in supervising work, but because of their sympathetic understanding of the people in the Gaeltacht. It is generally agreed that they have been very successful in their work and that the people met them in a friendly spirit and looked upon them, not as they were rather accustomed to look on Government officials in the past, but as their friends. That has been a very great advantage. The officials themselves, because of their sympathy with the Gaeltacht, did their work with something more than what we might call the ordinary conscientious discharge of their duty. I should like to take this opportunity of paying public tribute to the way they have done their work.
In this matter there is a speed beyond which it is not wise to go. As I said, the number of handymen is limited. There is a large number of young men learning the different crafts connected with house building, but it would be unwise to allow them to take charge of the building of a house until they have become absolutely competent, because, as one can understand, the health of the people and the cost of repairs subsequently will largely depend on the efficiency with which the houses are built. Something like 2,500 houses have been sanctioned up to date and this in itself will greatly relieve the urgency of the problem. I assured the Oireachtas when the Principal Act was going through that I would deal first with what might be called the worst slum areas in the Gaeltacht. In fact, the original Act provided that three-fifths of the total sum should be spent in the very congested areas in the fíor-Ghaeltacht. The principle adopted is that if the total valuation of an area, divided by the population, is one guinea or under, that area is one of the areas to which three-fifths of the money must be applied. That does not mean that some of the other two-fifths might not also be applied there. In fact, as we stand at present, out of the amount we have earmarked we have given something more than three-fifths to these particular areas. Until these particular slum areas are relieved it would be unwise to deal with the places which are somewhat better off.
Under Section 12 of the Principal Act the Department was empowered to assist people in the purchasing of materials. We met with great success in a combined purchasing scheme in this matter. We found that the suppliers of materials met us in a very friendly spirit. We dealt with home materials so far as possible and so far as was practical, but some foreign materials had to be procured and the makers of materials abroad even seemed quite anxious to help the Department in dealing with this problem and to help the people of the Gaeltacht. The result was that we succeeded in lowering the cost of a four-roomed house as it would be built under ordinary circumstances by about £27 owing to this combined purchasing scheme. That went, of course, to the advantage of the man who was building so that it was tantamount to an increase of £27 in the free grant. I should like to say also, as it is a matter of considerable interest, that the entire working of this Act has been carried out in Irish. The tender forms sent out and the correspondence from the Department were all in Irish and all the work done by the inspectors has been done entirely through the Irish language. The work has not only not suffered in efficiency in that way, but everybody agrees that scarcely any Act has ever been so efficiently worked.
