Boland, KevinWednesday, 21 May 1969 |
Dáil Eireann Debate
Page of 62
|
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Water Schemes.
I have approved Kerry County Council's modified proposals for the Emlaghmore water supply scheme. As regards the financing of the scheme, no application for a loan has been received in my Department.
Louth County Council have recently agreed to make available a supply of water for domestic purposes only to this group. The Department's inspector has explained the position to the promoter of the gr...
Arrangements were recently made for a full investigation of this scheme by officials of my Department and of the county council.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Tallow (Waterford) Amenities.
A proposal by Waterford County Council for the provision of a public sanitary convenience at Tallow is under consideration in my Department. Particulars of the number of derelict buildings in Tallow a...
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Kerry Housing Scheme.
No such proposal has been submitted to my Department.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - New House Grants.
Section 16 of the Housing Act, 1966, lays down a scale of grants related to the valuation of holdings. These apply to persons who derive their livelihood solely or mainly from the pursuit of agricultu...
The reply I have given is to the question as I understood it. If the Deputy has something else he wants to ask I suggest he put down a question next week.
I have answered.
I have answered the question that was asked. If Deputy Gilhawley meant to ask a different question I suggest that he put that question down next week and I will be very happy to answer it.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Ballymun (Dublin) Differential Rents.
I am not so aware.
And the work can be done more expeditiously.
As I said, this is a matter for the local authority and any proposals in this regard must be initiated by the local authority. My only function in the matter is to sanction, or not sanction, schemes ...
No, that is not the fact. The fact is that the proposals put forward by the Coalition dominated local authority were much more severe.
No. These proposals were put forward by the Coalition dominated local authority which reneged on its undertaking to the citizens of Dublin. When they put forward a scheme it was much more severe tha...
That is correct.
I had to indicate to the body that I was not prepared to approve of some of the provisions in the scheme that Deputy Dunne and his colleagues sent forward.
There is a much better prospect of getting an acceptable scheme now. The people who should have done it reneged on their responsibility. (Interruptions.)
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Ballymun (Dublin) Amenity Centre.
Terms for the leasing of a site for a comprehensive shopping and service development within the area of the Ballymun housing estate have been agreed between the Dublin Corporation and a development co...
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Employment of Swimming Instructors.
It is open to sanitary authorities to provide for the giving of swimming instructions as required in swimming pools provided by them. State assistance is provided towards the capital cost of pools but...
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Bluebell (Dublin) Library.
There is an existing branch library in Inchicore. No proposals for the provision of a further library at Bluebell have been submitted by the local authority. Let the Deputy convey that to his collea...
It did not sound all that civil to me, but the fact is that this local body has not sent forward any such proposal to my Department and the question of sanction, therefore, does not arise. However, I...
I am not going to do the work of Dublin Corporation. Deputy Dunne was elected to do that and he refused to do it and he refused to let anybody else do it.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Planning Appeal Comments.
I understand that a statement reflecting upon the conduct of the residents of Ballyfermot was made in the course of his evidence by a representative for the developers at an oral hearing of an appeal ...
As I said, I am aware of this regrettable and completely unjustified statement but in considering a planning appeal I am obliged to take into account only planning considerations.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Local Authority Rates.
As the reply is in the form of a tabular statement I propose, with your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, to circulate it with the Official Report. Following is the statement:
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Local Authority Indebtedness.
The net indebtedness of local authorities, excluding harbour authorities, vocational education committees and committees of agriculture, increased by an estimated £111.22 million in the period from 31...
I am glad and proud to say that as a result of the improvement in the country's economy it has been possible to make this extra investment in the provision of services for our people.
This £111.22 million is a sum of money which represents the achievement of this Government in local government and which will be hung around the necks of the Deputy's Party at a later——
——at a later date.
Yes.
We certainly do. That is an inherent part of Fianna Fáil policy.
The Deputy and his colleagues will have to answer later this year for their attitude in this matter. They will not get away with trying to have this both ways. (Interruptions.)
Deputy L'Estrange is ensuring that his Party, smaller and reduced in numbers, will be over there after the next general election.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Postal Voting Facilities.
Postal voting is confined by law to members of the Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces. The introduction of legislation to extend postal voting facilities to sailors on Irish ships is not at presen...
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Personation Penalties.
The penalties for the offence of personation are set out in subsection (2) of section 6 of the Prevention of Electoral Abuses Act, 1923, as amended by section 90 of the Electoral Act, 1963.
Let that be a warning to you now.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Piggeries in Residential Areas.
Local authorities have adequate statutory powers under the sanitary services and planning codes to ensure that the operation of piggeries will not be detrimental to public health or amenity.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Dublin River Pollution.
Major drainage works which are proposed, or in progress, in the Dublin area will remedy to a considerable extent pollution problems such as that mentioned by the Deputy.
I have a stack of them for next week.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Dublin Taxed Vehicles.
As the reply is in the form of a tabular statement I propose, with your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, to circulate it with the Official Report. Following is the statement:
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Dublin Traffic Control.
This is a matter for consideration by the local authority.
The provision of traffic control devices is a matter for the local authority acting at the request, or with the consent, of the Garda Commis- sioner. No proposals have been submitted to me in relati...
The provision of traffic light signals is a matter for the local authority acting at the request or with the consent of the Garda Commissioner. There are no proposals on this matter before my Departme...
The financing of the local authority's proposals for the construction of a traffic island to improve traffic control at the junction of Sundrive Road, Kildare Road, Clonmacnoise Road, Lismore Road and...
Order of Business.
Deputy Gilhawley is in before Deputy Flanagan.
Committee on Finance. - Resolution No. 13—General (resumed).
What election?
Does the Deputy's Party endorse it?
The Deputy is complaining that we have not endorsed it.
We have done well without the Deputy's advice.
We will have to wait until the delegation from Cuba comes back.
It is not our Deputies who are running to Dublin.
The Deputy is giving us good advice.
It will be nearly enough to pay the cost of an election.
I really find it very hard to believe my ears when I hear Deputy O'Leary, on the one hand, speaking about what he alleges to be the conversion of this Government to what his Party has been preaching f...
Group water schemes were initiated by Fianna Fáil.
They were initiated by Fianna Fáil in the teeth of opposition by Fine Gael and, not merely opposition, but sneering comments by the then Leader of the Party, Deputy Dillon, who linked them with the re...
I was pointing out that if we accept the proposition—and the Government clearly accepts it—that each individual has a right to a house, then this means it is the duty of the rest of the community to p...
If either of the Opposition Parties, or a combination of them, which is the only possibility, got into the position of actually having to deal with the housing situation, the only result would be that...
The most important thing about a housing programme, and this should have penetrated the Fine Gael and Labour benches by now, is that it must be planned. Sites must be acquired. Services must be prov...
Dissipate everything until the stage is reached when there are no money available, and then crash and it is left to Fianna Fáil to take over once more and retrieve the disaster. It is 12 years since ...
Such a crash programme would be an irresponsible programme leading, as Deputy Coogan so perceptibly remarks, to the same type of disastrous crash——
——as we had before. Our approach is different. We admit it is different. It is a planned approach. In 1964 we approached this problem by issuing a White Paper covering the period from 1964-70. We s...
As I was saying, the White Paper will recognise the fundamental thing is to maintain the capacity of the economy to finance housing. The arrangements made in this Budget are related to an increase in ...
Last minute efforts to re-establish the Coalition——
——despite the protestations of going it alone we have the backdoor and secret discussions to try to reactivate the Coalition. However, the people know what is going on and they know that the proposit...
Let the Deputy put down a further question next week.
The Deputy can put down another question and raise it on the adjournment.
Our experience shows that the people can appreciate that housing is an expensive process and an extensive one. They appreciate that you must acquire the land first, that you must provide the services...
Both of the Opposition Parties continue to operate on the assumption that all they have to do is promise the sun, moon and stars, not to relate it in any way to economic capacity, and that the people ...
——people who are capable of making an intelligent decision, capable of appreciating this fundamental thing, that all these services take money and that the only place that the Government can get money...
I can appreciate the Opposition's preoccupation with this business of the Park. So far as this Dáil is concerned, the latest date for the holding of a general election, as Deputy Dunne's colleague bl...
And Deputy Dunne will find himself this time with an active colleague and Deputy Dunne will find that his enemy is at his rear.
That is because I am being interrupted. The level of capital investment in housing in 1968-69 was £57 million. This year it will be £62 million. The White Paper will show what our housing needs wil...
No. I may have mentioned the same figures but in a different context. If the Deputy will study them later and try to gloss over his irrelevant interruptions, the whole process should be an education...
Is this a point of order?
I will allow Deputy O'Higgins to talk all right. Is there not plenty of time until April 20th, 1970?
Deputy O'Higgins called for a House.
I am sure any Fianna Fáil Deputies not here are very well engaged.
It is estimated that, so far as accumulated needs are concerned, the need to replace unfit dwellings amounts to 31,000. This is as against 50,000 in 1960—unfit dwellings, of course, covering very man...
I am not.
It is not. I am dealing with points raised by Deputy O'Donnell in Fine Gael and Deputy Micheal O'Leary in the Labour Party.
I am trying to show how this Budget refutes the charges made here tonight—quite apart from the rest of the Budget debate—by Deputy O'Donnell on behalf of Fine Gael and by Deputy O'Leary on behalf of t...
What else have you been talking about?
I have no intention in the world of doing that. I shall give Deputies opposite plenty of time——
No. I am nearly finished about housing. But Deputies opposite also dealt with water. Deputy O'Donnell was very critical of the group water schemes and regional water schemes. Surely, in view of t...
That is not so. He was not. He dealt with both group and regional water schemes. The records will show that he was not ruled out of order.
Deputy O'Higgins could not know, because he was not here. He never is here at that time of night.
Yes. I submit that, in view of all the adverse references that have been made to the housing achievements of the Government, in view of the suggestions that this should be dealt with by way of a cras...
——and to show that it arranges to provide for the final year of the White Paper issued in 1964 and for the initial stages of the White Paper now in course of issue. Quite apart from the two contribut...
I was pointing out that, in spite of that, it will obviously be possible to keep on increasing the amount of the community's resources available for housing. If we are to succeed in meeting our housi...
——and to divert as much as possible of the capital from the larger and more expensive type of house to this type of house which is our main need. I want to point out that, at present, we have the sam...
With the addition of the supplementary grant people in the former category, that is between 1,050 square feet and 1,200 square feet, will have an increase of £50 available and for the more modest type...
Deputy L'Estrange's colleague, Deputy O'Higgins, some time ago was protesting that I was going into detail but I maintain that I was not going into detail and that I was speaking in a general way at t...
The Deputy will not be one of them. Deputy L'Estrange is now complaining that I am not going into enough detail.
Group water schemes were dead at the time that the Deputy's Party had anything to do with the Department of Finance or the Department of Local Government.
These schemes were introduced by Fianna Fáil because of the improvement in the economy and Deputy L'Estrange does not like them.
In reply to a Parliamentary Question, I gave Deputy L'Estrange the facts about the increase in the indebtedness of local authorities. It is £111.22 million. That is a measure of the increased prosper...
It is the result of the investment by Fianna Fáil in order to provide these services for the people.
Exactly. That is Fianna Fáil policy. Does the Fine Gael Party not agree with that?
Before I was interrupted I was dealing with the question of money. As Deputy L'Estrange says, we will require posterity to pay for the services they are enjoying, for the houses which are being built...
Where is the money to come from for the provision of the houses? Where is the money to come from for the continuation of the regional water supply schemes?
Fianna Fáil borrowed money. Is Deputy L'Estrange saying that this is not Fine Gael policy?
No. I am waiting for the Deputy to cease interrupting. (Interruptions.)
The fugitive from Laois-Offaly will not keep me quiet. (Interruptions.)
I am anxious to deal with the Deputy who came in from Laois-Offaly.
I will not be able to deal with the rates at all.
I have now been asked by the Fine Gael Party to deal with the question of the increased indebtedness of local authorities because of the increased investment in the provision of houses and water and s...
We look on this as an indication of the success of the Fianna Fáil policy and a clear indication of the proper direction of Fianna Fáil policy.
First of all, Fianna Fáil increased the community's resources and, secondly, they utilised those resources for the benefit of the community as a whole.
We think it is good Government policy——
We think it is good public policy for the Government to take into its hands a certain amount of capital that is available each particular year and utilise it——
——for the provision of houses and of water and sewerage services. That is Fianna Fáil policy. Fine Gael's is the opposite. So, let no one ever say again that there is no difference between Fianna Fá...
All these are complementary and it is through this comprehensive approach to the provision of water in rural areas that we intend, over a period, according as the economy expands, to bring this essent...
——that last year there were 2,389 grants paid for group water schemes. This was a record and the fact is that this record will be improved upon this year. Much as I should like to facilitate Deputy ...
There is only one other matter I want to deal with which was raised here, that is, the question of the rates and the irresponsible manner in which the Fine Gael-Labour Coalition in Dublin Corporation ...
I must admit I was rather puzzled myself.
The fact is that a number of Opposition speakers not only today but on other days when the Budget was under discussion, criticised us on the ground that the Budget did not provide for the transfer of ...
——I am called upon to deal with the matter. I hope to deal with it reasonably briefly. (Interruptions.)
I might be finished now if Deputies had stopped interrupting me.
As I said, the criticism is that this was not transferred to the Central Fund. It is quite obvious that certainly in so far as Dublin city is concerned—and that seems to have been the main bone of co...
In this city of Dublin 50 per cent of the total rates raised in the Dublin Corporation area is paid in respect of commercial property. Obviously then, if we respond to the Labour Party demand and the...
——that the result would obviously be to relieve the large commercial ratepayers of the contribution they are making towards——
——the provision of essential services for the city of Dublin and to require that to be paid by the ordinary worker and by the ordinary householder instead. That is the demand the Labour Party and the...
I can tell Deputies exactly what would be required.
To transfer this from the rates to the Central Fund would require an increase in turnover tax of from 5 to 6 per cent or an increase in income tax of 4/-, or an alternative method might be only to do...
I do not know which of these methods Deputy L'Estrange is advocating, or which of these methods the Labour Party are advocating, but this is the magnitude of the transfer of the taxation that would be...
As I say, I do not know which of these things they want.
Deputy Flanagan expelled his colleague from Laois-Offaly and gave him such an impetus that he reached South County Dublin before his brother who had only to come over the border from Wicklow, and now ...
Peter Pan, the eternal youth. When the Deputy decided to keep his votes in the family he exported his former colleague to South County Dublin——
——and he came with such speed that, although his brother was half way across the border, he got there before him. Now Deputy Flanagan has chased him out of the House as well.
If, on the other hand, the demand is not to transfer the whole of the rates contribution to the Central Fund but instead to transfer the whole of the health charges to the Central Fund then what would...
——would be either an increase of 3.3 per cent in turnover tax or an increase of 2/3 in income tax. Through the machinations of Fine Gael and Labour members of the Dublin City Council the decision was ...
They got every opportunity of mending their hand and providing the money. Because of their stubbornness they refused to do so, and therefore the only thing a responsible Minister for Local Government...
Adjournment Debate. - New House Grants.
This is not relevant. Reconstruction grants do not come into it at all.
Reconstruction grants were not mentioned at all. The question dealt with new house grants.
New house grants.
This deals with new house grants.
Can the Deputy not do that?
I have two Bills—very important ones, too.
This has nothing to do with Question No. 12.
Am I entitled to my ten minutes?
Question No. 12 on today's Order Paper was: To ask the Minister for Local Government the scale of increased new house grants in relation to income available to people, other than farmers under £25 val...
All I can repeat is what section 16 of the Housing Act lays down and that is that for the purposes of the higher rate of new housing grants farmers are classified in three categories—those with a valu...
This section of the Act also provides for the payment of the higher rate of grant to a person ordinarily resident in a rural area in an overcrowded or unfit house and who is in need of a house on med...
In my reply to the question I gave the Deputy the relevant information. If it was some other question which the Deputy wanted to ask——
The question down here is not a question at all. There is no answer to it. It does not make sense. If there is some relevant question the Deputy wants to ask I can only repeat my advice that he shou...
Written Answers. - Indebtedness of Local Authorities.
The latest date for which an estimate of local authority indebtedness is available is 31st March, 1968. Information regarding the position at this date was given in reply to the Deputy's Question No....
| Last Updated: 15/09/2010 09:17:10 |
Page of 62
|