Provision is made in this Bill for furthere issues from the Local Loans Fund in respect of local loans. The present statutory limit on issues, as fixed by the Local Loans Fund (Amendment) Act, 1954, is £90,000,000 and the Bill raises this limit to £110,000,000.
Since the fund was established on 1st May 1935, issues from it to 31st March last amounted to nearly £76,500,000, £62,500,000 relating to housing loans, nearly £10,750,000 to sanitary services and public health loans, nearly £1,500,000 to loans for vocational schools and about £1,750,000 to loans for other services.
Loans sanctioned from the fund in the same period, including a carry-over from before 1st May, 1935, amounted to, approximately, £88,250,000, the difference between the figure for sanctions and the figure for issues being accounted for by the fact that, while in the normal course loans are sanctioned in full, they are issued in instalments to the borrowers.
As the total commitments of the fund are nearing the existing limit of £90,000,000, the extension proposed in the present Bill is necessary.
The availability of moneys for the financing of loans from the Local Loans Fund depends on the availability of capital for State financing as a whole. Capital, as I have said before, is now both scarce and dear and it must be accepted that it will not be possible in the period ahead to meet all our desirable capital requirements in the absence of a marked change for the better in the savings trend. This is a position which must, inevitably and unfortunately, react on the finances of the Local Loans Fund, and thus, for the present at least, all projects making a demand on the fund must be carefully examined. Every effort is being made in relation to capital outlay generally to preserve a reasonable balance as between social and economic considerations, but, in existing circumstances, it is essential to devote far the greater proportion of the resources available to us to productive investment.
So far as the Local Loans Fund is concerned, housing is the principal claimant and requirements under this heading are being accorded a high priority. The needs of local authorities outside the Dublin and Cork urban areas may be expected to taper off in the coming years as their housing needs have been largely met, and this should give relief to the fund in the future. Any relief in this way in the current year is, however, more than offset by the assistance which it is necessary to give Dublin and Cork Corporations who, up to this year have been able to raise the necessary funds through their own independent borrowings. It is hoped that this situation is only temporary and that in the years ahead the fund will be relieved of the necessity to come to the aid of our two main local authorities.