Tá an Bille seo á thabhairt isteach chun Achtanna na dTithe (Gaeltacht), 1929-1953, a leasú agus a leathnú. Is iad aidhmeanna an Bhille—na deontais agus na hiasachtaí uile faoi na hAchtanna a mhéadú; deontas a chur ar fáil i leith córas uisce nó saoráidí séarachais a chur isteach i dteach cónaithe (faoi láthair, ní mór iad araon a chur isteach, chun deontas d'fháil); deontas a chur ar fáil i leith seanchóras uisce agus/nó saoráidí séarachais d'fheabhsú; deontas a chur ar fáil i leith seomra folctha a chur isteach i dteach cónaithe; tuilleadh cúnaimh a chur ar fáil do dhaoine sna límistéirí atá sceidealta in Ordú na Límistéirí Gaeltachta, 1956, chun seomraí breise a chur lena dtithe cónaithe; cúnamh a chur ar fáil do dhaoine sna límistéirí Gaeltachta sin chun iostáin saoire le haghaidh cuairteoirí a thógáil; deontas a chur ar fáil do chomhluchtaí aitheanta i leith brúnna a thógáil sna límistéirí Gaeltachta sin leasú a dhéanamh ar an bhfaoiseamh ó ardú rátaí i leith obair a déantar faoi na hAchtanna; leasú a dhéanamh ar an gcoinníoll, in Alt 3 d'Acht 1929, nach dtabharfar cúnamh ach do dhaoine atá ina sealbhairí ar thithe cónaithe; agus, leasú a dhéanamh ar an Sceideal d'Acht 1929 ina leagtar síos na límistéirí a chomhdhéanas an Ghaeltacht chun críocha na nAchtanna.
This Bill is being introduced for the purpose of amending and extending the Housing (Gaeltacht) Acts of 1929-53. Already under those Acts upwards of 5,000 new houses have been built and another 5,000 have been improved at a cost of £1 million in grants and £¼ million in loans. Notwithstanding what has been done, however, it is estimated that about 3,000 new houses are needed and that about 5,000 existing houses require to be repaired in the Gaeltacht areas.
No increase has been made in the grants for new houses since the passing of the 1949 Act in spite of the big increase in costs which occurred in the interim. To remedy that situation, it is proposed under Section 2(1) of the Bill to increase the present building grants by £25 in the case of houses which do not possess running water and sanitary facilities, and also in the case of houses which will have these facilities but where a public water supply or sanitary facilities are available. It is proposed also to increase the present building grants by £50 in the case of houses which will have running water and sanitary facilities but where a public water supply and sanitary facilities are not available. It is further proposed under the same Section to make available an additional sum of up to £100 for the provision of a fitted bathroom in the house.
It is proposed under Section 2 (2) of the Bill to increase the improving grants by £30 so that grants of £110, £130 and £150 respectively will be available according as a house will have three rooms, four rooms, or five or more rooms. Under Section 3 (1) it is proposed to provide improved sanitation facilities either in the form of a £55 grant in respect of the provision of water, £30 for sanitary facilities or a combined grant of £85 for both. It is also proposed to provide a maximum grant of £140 for the provision of a bathroom.
There are many houses in which there are already water or sanitary facilities but in which these are in a bad or faulty condition. It is intended under Section 3 (1) to provide a grant of up to £40 for the repair or improvement of such water or sanitary facilities.
Under the Act of 1953, a maximum grant of £80 is available in respect of the provision of an additional room for visitors. However, this grant was not used to the extent envisaged— probably due to the smallness of the grant. I now propose to increase and extend this grant as shown in the Table which accompanies Section 3 (1). However, as our concern is mainly with visitors who have an interest in the language, it is intended that this assistance will be available only in the areas scheduled in the Gaeltacht Areas Order, 1956.
As the law stands at present, loans of up to £100 in addition to a building grant and of up to £40 in the case of an improving or a special extension grant are available. These loans were provided under the 1949 Act and under present conditions the amounts advanced are not nearly large enough. There are a good many households in the Gaeltacht living under very bad housing conditions for whom these loans, in addition to the grants available, are insufficient to enable them to provide proper accommodation for themselves and their dependants. It is to provide for people of this type that it is intended to make available the loans set out in Section 5 (1) and (2) of the Bill i.e. in the case of a building grant, a loan equal to the amount of the grant; and, in the case of an improving or extension grant, a loan of up to half the cost of the work in question.
Under Section 3 of the Act of 1929, it is not possible to give assistance under the Acts except to the occupiers of existing houses. As a result of this condition, it has been found necessary to refuse assistance to people such as tradesmen, fishermen and others who intended to get married and settle down in the Gaeltacht. I think it is obvious that to maintain such a condition would not be to the best advantage of the language or of the Gaeltacht itself. There is no such a condition in the General Housing Acts and it is intended under Section 3 (1) of this Bill that this condition will not in future affect people in the areas scheduled under the Gaeltacht Areas Order of 1956.
Assistance of an entirely new kind is set out in Section 4. As Senators are aware, emphasis is now being laid on the speaking of Irish in the secondary schools, and it is to be expected that this emphasis will be felt very much in the Gaeltacht and that there will be more visitors than ever going there to learn and to practise the speaking of Irish. It is only right to take full advantage of the situation for the benefit of the people of the Gaeltacht. In addition, it is very important that the existing amenities and undoubted possibilities of the Gaeltacht areas as tourist centres should be exploited to the full in the interests of the Gaeltacht people and of the country as a whole. At the moment, however, there is not sufficient suitable accommodation in the Gaeltacht areas to cope with any big increase in the number of visitors. To cope with this situation and to provide a steady income for the people of the Gaeltacht areas, it is intended to make available a grant of up to £200 for the provision of one holiday chalet to accommodate visitors. The kind of chalet envisaged is a simple well-built structure erected at a reasonable cost. In addition to this grant it is intended under Section 5 (3) to provide loans of up to £200 in cases in which loans would be deemed necessary. It is quite possible that some people would like to build more than one chalet and accordingly it is intended under Section 5 (4) to provide loans of up to £300 to help with the provision of a second chalet and another loan of up to £300 to enable a third chalet to be built if so desired.
Another kind of assistance provided for under Section 4 is also of an entirely new order. It is intended to provide for grants of up to £5,000 to enable approved bodies to erect hostels in Gaeltacht areas. It is thought that such accommodation will be needed to house groups of students, etc., for whom the ordinary household accommodation would not be suitable or sufficient. The type of hostel envisaged is a building in which cooking, eating and sleeping accommodation would be available for upwards of 20 people.
As the law stands at the moment, there is relief from any increase in rates for 20 years available to grantees under the Housing (Gaeltacht) Acts in respect of work carried out under these Acts. Accordingly, the enactment of Section 3 (1) of the Bill would result, in respect of persons who are not occupiers of existing houses, in such persons not being liable for rates at all. I also think such generous relief from rates is no longer necessary. Accordingly, it is proposed under Section 6 of the Bill to adopt what has been done under the General Housing Acts of 1958 and to give a sliding scale of relief from rates in future in respect of building work. Although this is a reduction in the relief already available under the existing Housing (Gaeltacht) Acts, it is nevertheless greater than the relief available under the General Housing Acts. In the case of housing work other than building operations, it is proposed to leave the system of relief from any increase in rates as it is at present but to reduce the period of relief from 20 years to 10 years.
In the Schedule to the Act of 1929, there are listed the district electoral divisions comprised in the Gaeltacht for the purpose of the Gaeltacht Housing Acts. This Schedule was never amended and is now completely out of date. In quite a number of these divisions no application for housing assistance has been received for a long time. In some others, no assistance has been approved for some considerable time because the condition with regard to the Irish language was not fulfilled. Senators are, of course, aware that the Gaeltacht areas have now been determined by Order under Section 2 of the Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Act, 1956. The question whether the benefits of the Acts should be confined exclusively to those areas was considered. As, however, there are some households in outside districts where Irish is the habitual language of the household, I would be loath, and I think it would not be to the advantage of the language, to deprive these people of the benefits of the Acts. Accordingly, I propose under Section 7 of the Bill to restrict the benefits of the Acts in future to the counties in which grants are ordinarily sanctioned.
The foregoing are the chief aims and provisions of the Bill. I am placing it before the Seanad for consideration in the confident hope that the House will agree to it.
