I move:—
That Seanad Eireann deplores the action of the Government which has resulted in the raising of the loan charges on small dwellings by 2 per cent. with the result that many persons endeavouring to provide their own homes will now be prevented from doing so, and that Seanad Eireann, therefore, demands that the Government reconsider their decision so that loans under the Small Dwellings (Acquisition) Acts may be granted at the old rate of interest.
Although this is a very important motion I understand it is desired to take another motion, and I shall be very brief. Before I refer to the motion, I would like as a member of the House to utter the strongest possible protest against the treatment that this and other motions have received. At the time this motion was tabled last May it was a very important motion. It was a question that affected thousands upon thousands of persons in this country, yet it was not reached until the following February. I took it that it was the right of any Senator, who so desired, to table a motion here, but there is certainly not very much incentive if you have to wait 12 months for an opportunity of having it discussed.
I hope the House will be unanimous in support of this motion because not alone does it seriously affect many of the present citizens of the country but also our future citizens. I am one of those who believe that if you are going to build a nation you must give as many people as possible a stake in that nation, give them something in which they will have an interest. To increase the loan charges under the Small Dwellings (Acquisition) Acts was a grave injustice. We have reached the stage now when instead of giving encouragement to people to own any property and to provide their own homes, we are giving them every encouragement to own nothing.
Take the case of a person who sets out to provide his own home — I assume that it will be the same down the country as in Dublin. They first of all purchase a plot of ground on which they are prepared to pay ground rent. The average cost of the house is about £1,500 and the interest alone on that in repayment of principal is something like £75. With the interest, the ground rent and the rates as they are now, the total expenses must amount to over £2 a week. The majority of people who are providing these homes are industrious and enterprising and deserve every encouragement. I am very much in favour of local authority services. I believe everybody in the country should have a house but I would like to warn everybody concerned that you will never build a nation around local authority houses.
The person who is prepared to provide a plot of ground in order to build a home, to become a ratepayer, to pay income-tax on the ground rent and be responsible for the repairs of the house for all time, is putting a burden on himself. It is his duty to provide a home but greater assistance should be given to him. On the other hand, let us consider local authority houses. I am sure other Senators who are members of local authorities realise as well as I do that repairs are becoming a cruel burden. In County Dublin alone, £250,000 has been spent on repairing local authority houses. The people who are seeking a loan under the Small Dwellings (Acquisition) Acts will be responsible for their own repairs, they are increasing the valuation of whatever county they reside in and they are making for better citizens. There is no greater bulwark against Communism than that provision should be made so that everybody would own something. If you want to kill Communism, you should try to give everybody some little stake in their own country.
Of course, it would not be in order to say that, apart from increased loan charges, there are also the increased professional charges, both legal and other charges. I appeal to the Minister to reduce the loan charges to at least what they were. If the position is allowed to remain as it is nine out of ten of those people with small dwellings, in Dublin City and County at any rate, will eventually have to go back to seek local authority houses. As their family grows bigger, they will become entitled to a local authority house. I have given you the figures for the Dublin County Council in connection with repairs but it would be interesting to know what the Dublin Corporation figures are for repairs. I believe that the system is wrong where you provide, say, a painter with a house and send in another painter to paint it. Where you have a painter or any other tradesman who is willing and anxious to provide his own home, to pay rates and ground rent and be responsible for his own repairs, he should get special treatment. Instead of increasing the loan charges by 2 per cent. if I could help it I would reduce them by 1 per cent.
County Dublin is, of course, out on its own as regards the provision of loans under the Small Dwellings (Acquisition) Act — we have given more than any other county—but since the loan charges were increased the number of applicants has decreased to an abnormally low figure. The majority of people who seek such loans are people with salaries of from £8 10s. 0d. to £10. They are unable at the present time to take the responsibility of building a house.
Then, again, you have the question of employment. If you give loans at a reasonable rate of interest many people will be enabled to provide homes for themselves and, in so doing, employment will be given to labourers and tradesmen. We have experience of the Government allocating, and rightly so, large sums of money to help to provide employment. This is one way in which the Government could help in a sound and practical manner. We would be building up the nation and at the same time reducing the number of people who are unemployed. I hope every member of the House will agree that this motion should be passed unanimously and that the Government should reconsider their decision about the increased loan charges and bring them down to the rate which operated before they were increased. I know many persons who got loans at the high rate of interest. Not having had previous experience, they were unprepared for ground rent and rates.
At the present time there is a two-thirds remission of rates for seven years on their property but, even with that two-thirds remission, they are finding it extremely difficult to meet the outgoings. The poor law valuation of the majority of the houses I have in mind is about £20. What will happen when these people will have to pay the full rates, I do not know, seeing that many of them are unable to meet their present liabilities. I will go so far as to prophesy that, should the cost of living remain at its present high level, all those people who got loans at the high rate of interest will be unable to hold on to their houses because of their great difficulty in meeting their liabilities. For these reasons, I earnestly appeal to the House, to the Minister and to everybody concerned, to reduce the loan charges to their former rate.
I have already mentioned that increased building activity, which would come about as a result of lower loan charges, would provide a great deal of employment and that would help to do away with slowness. I am a worker myself and I do not wish to cast any reflection on workers: as a matter of fact, I am strongly swayed in the opposite direction. I hold that we would have far better nation building if, in every scheme and every area, we had a certain number of people who owned their own homes. By their thrift, industry and example these people would encourage other people who live beside them to raise themselves up to their standard. That is a point which is deserving of every consideration.
My last word is that I feel that to increase the loan charges on a person who is trying to provide his own home is a national crime and that it should not take place.