It is clear from the opening statement by the Minister of State that this Bill is an urgent one in that the present ceiling of £1,500 million on the Local Loans Fund has almost been reached. This Bill seeks to add a further £1,000 million to that fund for an unspecified time. The Minister does not specify how long the period to be covered by this Bill will be. Certainly, as a member of a local authority, I share with other Senators in a similar position an acute awareness of the financial crisis in local authorities and, therefore, we would do nothing to delay this Bill. Indeed in the Labour Group we would wonder whether the proposed increase is substantial enough to meet the very serious crisis in areas of local authority jurisdiction.
In particular I should like to begin with the housing crisis. It is impossible to consider this Bill without referring at least briefly to the way in which it is proposed to dispose of the moneys from the Local Loans Fund. As I understand it, approximately two-thirds of this fund are allocated for local authority housing, for house purchase loans and for supplementary grants. On Monday, 15 December, a special meeting of the Dublin City Council was requisitioned by the Labour Group because of the extent of the housing crisis in Dublin. This is the most seriour challenge facing local representatives in the Dublin area: the fact that the housing list reflects a very severe social problem, the fact that the population in the greater Dublin area has increased very dramatically over the past half decade, while the amount of money, particularly in the private sector, for house building and the amount of house building have declined.
This is a very severe crisis for the local authority because we are dependent on the allocation of money from Central Government and, in particular, dependent on allocations from funds such as the Local Loans Fund. If the Minister of State had been present at the Dublin City Council meeting the other right, it would have been clear to him that, right across the board, local councillors are extremely worried about the situation. Again and again the point was made that it is impossible to get a local authority house allocation now, unless the family has special priority. It is no longer possible under the points system to have a reasonable prospect of an allocation of housing. That has put an allocation of housing. That has put an enormous strain on the local authority. One of the reasons for this strain is the high interest rate and the fact that the private construction industry has moved into the more luxury market, so that those families and those individuals who would like to obtain a mortgage and get their own house find themselves unable to do so and are forced to go on the local authority housing list.
Another very important factor is the cost of local authority housing. This is deeply relevant to the question of the size of the Local Loans Fund. The average price of a local authority house in 1976 was £8,553. In the last quarter of 1980, the average price of a local authority housing is £22,161 and, in centre city areas, the price is higher because of the high cost of sites as well as other inflationary aspects in the construction industry. That has seriously aggravated the housing crisis and yet this Government refuse to consider a Bill to control the cost of building land, to control the cost of sites. That is a blatant failure to meet an important part of the housing crisis. For so long as the price of housing can be exploited in an unfettered way on the private market, and for so long as people can make profits out of the development of sites for housing, then the cost, both to the private builder and, more importantly, for the purposes of this debate, for local authorities trying to house families in their area, will escalate, not in small amounts, but double and treble over the years.
For that reason I should like the Minister to be a little more precise about the period for which he thinks this Bill will run. How long is it estimated that, under the present terms, the £1,000 million extra, which is being sought in this Bill, will last? If there is to be any meeting of the real social needs, then the view of the Labour Group is that this is an underestimate at present costings. The reasons are very clear. We have no control over building land. All Government policy is directed away from the availability in the private sector of cheap housing for people. The Foras Forbartha report establishes this. The construction industry has moved into the luxury market. A much higher percentage of houses are now five bedroomed luxury houses, and freestanding houses. Those who already have homes are converting a £40,000 home into a £60,000 or £70,000 home because of the advantages of high mortgage relief, the general taxation advantages and the increase in their assets.