This side of the House welcomes the Bill. The increase of £500 million in the maximum available is an enormous increase. If we take into account the effects of inflation it might not be as great as it appears on the surface. Nevertheless, it is an increase and we welcome it. We hope that the moneys will be readily available to the local authorities, which depend to a large extent on borrowings from the Local Loans Fund. We also hope that hints from high places of a cut back on public expenditure do not indicate that money to local authorities under this heading will not be readily available in future for the many schemes they might have in hand.
A large percentage of this money will, as in the past, be used to provide housing. I hope the local authorities will be encouraged and helped to apportion land and service it for the provision of housing sites. Failure to do that in years past has meant that people who would normally be in a position to provide their own housing now find that the cost of purchasing a site, which in some provincial areas has gone as high as £3,000 to £4,000, means that they cannot do so. This is something that has built up over the years and cannot be readily eliminated.
The huge increase in the cost of housing sites and the fact that so many local authorities have done little or nothing to provide serviced sites is a matter of grave concern. It is good business to help people who would set about providing their own housing as otherwise the State will have to do this. I would recommend to the Minister that the local authorities be encouraged to provide serviced sites convenient to our towns.
In reply to a question in the Dáil it was stated in February that the increase in the price of houses over the last 12-month period was about 19.2 per cent. That indicates the necessity for raising the limit of SDA loans. Furthermore, a good case can be made for increasing the ceiling with regard to the salary of those to whom loans will be given. At present, the maximum loan is about £3,500. That is not sufficient to provide housing. Even a modest house now costs over £10,000. In some areas, because of the shortage of housing people are forced to pay between £25,000 and £30,000 for quite modest three-bedroomed houses. Because of the shortage of housing we have people living in flats paying as much as £15 a week in provincial towns. It was an old, rough and ready rule of thumb in regard to housing that when a house cost the family more than one-eighth of their income it was gone beyond common sense. Far too many people today find themselves having to pay much more than one-eighth of their income to provide housing.
The development of many small towns and villages is held up because of lack of water and sewerage facilities. There has been some improvement in water supplies in recent years because of the popularity of group water schemes. Sewerage schemes are a different matter. The lack of water and sewerage facilities results in planning permission being refused in these areas. I hope that the increase in the Local Loans Fund will result in money being more freely available to local authorities for developments of this kind.
The development of the tourist industry is held up because of lack of water and sewerage facilities in small towns. Quite a large percentage of tourists like the peace of rural Ireland but they find it very difficult to find accommodation in the small towns and villages convenient to lakes and rivers that provide fishing facilities. Failure to develop these towns has not only aggravated the housing situation but is retarding the growth of our tourist industry.
Health boards are often in difficulty when they set about providing hospital facilities. I do not intend to go into that in a board way except to draw attention to one point. Everyone in the House is aware of the inadequacy of accommodation for the treatment of mentally retarded and handicapped people. I would like to be assured by the Minister that developments along those lines will be facilitated in every way by the ready availability of money from the Local Loans Fund. In the years ahead, vocational committees will find themselves having to call for more and more help from this fund. We must develop technical education.
The ratio of pupils doing academic courses in the post-primary level compared with those doing technical courses is 3.1:1. That is the exact reverse of the situation in the other European Economic Community countries. I believe that it will be necessary, if we are to develop the industrial arm of our economy effectively, to provide more and more facilities for the training of skilled technicians. A person in the academic field told me it was easier to provide the academic type of education that we give to the vast majority of our post-primary pupils than it was for the technical schools to provide the necessary equipment. A notebook, pencils, a couple of gross of chalk and a blackboard is all that is really necessary for a lot of these subjects in secondary schools, whereas machinery, carpenters' benches and this sort of costly equipment is necessary to provide proper facilities for the development of technical education.
I can foresee in the near future a big demand on this Local Loans Fund to develop that form of education to put us in a position to develop industrially. We have more than enough people with university degrees who are forced to leave the country, and at the same time a shortage of skilled workers to help to build up the country and to develop our industries. I can foresee, within the immediate future, a growing demand on the Local Loans Fund for that sort of development.
We have nine regional technical schools in the country. They do not, in my opinion, serve adequately the needs of the people. It will be necessary within a short time to increase considerably that number and make advanced technical education available to a larger section of our population.
In so far as help from the Local Loans Fund will assist drainage activities in this country, I do not have to emphasise the position there. It is readily agreed on all sides of the House, and has been said quite recently during a discussion on the Shannon drainage that drainage is a problem in this country. If we are in a position to tackle it adequately it could increase enormously our productivity. It is to be hoped that as far as it is possible money will be available from this Local Loans Fund to expedite the solution of drainage problems which exist in many parts of the country. I believe that with whatever funds we are able to get for development in that line from the EEC and help from the Local Loans Fund, many of the big drainage problems that have held back development since the State was founded will be tackled and we will be able to increase our potential as an agricultural country.
I realise, of course, that the Minister and his Department will have to deal with applications from local authorities all over the country and that it will be their business to establish priorities. I hope that the Bill is passed quickly. I hope that talk about cutting back in public expenditure will not result in development by local authorities having to be slowed down. That, in my opinion, would be false economy. There is much to be done by local authorities. They are conscious of their responsibilities. In many cases the plans are already made and submitted to the Department. I believe that it would be a bad thing if there was any appreciable slow down in proceeding with this work. I welcome the Bill and I wish the Minister and his Department every success in its implementation.