Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1931

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PART VIII.

Financial Provisions.

State contributions to expenses of provision of houses for the working classes.

64.—(1) The Minister may with the consent of the Minister for Finance out of monies to be provided by the Oireachtas, make contributions not exceeding the amounts and over periods not exceeding the periods hereinafter specified to local authorities and public utility societies towards the expenses incurred by them in the provision of houses for the working classes and agricultural labourers, that is to say:—

(a) in the case of houses to which this paragraph applies erected for the purpose of accommodating persons displaced by any operations of a local authority under the Housing of the Working Classes Acts—

(i) forty per centum of the annual loan charges in respect of such houses over a period not exceeding fifteen years and thirty-three and one-third per centum of such annual loan charges over a subsequent continuous period not exceeding twenty-two years, if such houses each contain two or more separate tenements and are erected on land acquired under Part II of this Act as being land comprised in or surrounded by or adjoining a clearance area or land included in an improvement scheme made and confirmed under Part I of the Act of 1890 before the passing of this Act or with the consent of the Minister on any other land;

(ii) thirty per centum of the annual loan charges in respect of such houses over a period not exceeding fifteen years and twenty per centum of such annual loan charges over a subsequent continuous period not exceeding fifteen years, if such houses each contain only one tenement;

(b) in the case of houses to which this paragraph applies which have not been erected for the purpose specified in paragraph (a) hereof twenty per centum of the annual loan charges in respect of such houses over a period not exceeding thirteen years and fifteen per centum of the annual loan charges over a subsequent continuous period not exceeding five years;

(c) in the case of houses to which this paragraph applies which have not been erected for the purpose specified in paragraph (a) hereof and are not houses to which paragraph (b) applies, fifteen per centum of the annual loan charges in respect of such houses over a period not exceeding twenty years;

(d) in the case of houses erected by a local authority under the Labourers (Ireland) Acts, 1883 to 1930, after the passing of this Act for the accommodation of agricultural labourers, twenty per centum of the annual loan charges in respect of such houses over a period not exceeding thirty five years;

(e) in the case of houses erected by a public utility society the erection of which is begun after the passing of this Act, fifteen per centum of the annual loan charges in respect of such houses over a period not exceeding twenty years.

(2) The foregoing sub-section shall subject to the provisions therein contained apply as follows:—

(a) Paragraph (a) thereof shall apply to houses erected by a local authority under Part III of the Act of 1890 as amended by any subsequent Act, including this Act—

(i) which are erected under housing schemes the loans in respect of which have been sanctioned by the Minister after the 1st day of April, 1931, and before the passing of this Act; or

(ii) the erection of which is begun and completed after the passing of this Act;

(b) Paragraph (b) thereof shall apply to houses erected by a local authority under Part III of the Act of 1890, as amended as aforesaid under housing schemes the loans in respect of which have been sanctioned by the Minister during the period between the 1st day of April, 1931, and the passing of this Act;

(c) Paragraph (c) thereof shall apply to houses erected by a local authority under Part III of the Act of 1890, as amended as aforesaid, the erection of which is begun and completed after the passing of this Act.

(3) The Minister shall not make any contribution under this section towards the expenses incurred by local authorities or public utility societies in the erection of any houses in respect of which grants have been or undertaken to be paid by him under the Housing Acts, 1925 to 1930.

(4) Where a local authority under section 8 of the Housing (Ireland) Act, 1919 , as amended by this Act, acquire any house which is suitable or might be made suitable as a house for the working classes for the purpose of the lease or sale thereof to a philanthropic society or body of persons approved of by the Minister with a view to its being maintained or made suitable by such society or body of persons as a house for the working classes, the Minister may, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, out of monies to be provided by the Oireachtas, subject to a maximum of two hundred pounds, make a grant of a sum not exceeding one half of the expenses incurred by the local authority in the acquisition of such house and one half of any expenses incurred by such local authority or such society or body of persons in altering, enlarging, improving or repairing such house, if such expenses in so far as they are incurred by a local authority are defrayed otherwise than out of borrowed monies.

(5) Regulations shall be made by the Minister with the approval of the Minister for Finance regulating and imposing conditions and restrictions with respect to the making of contributions and grants under this section and any such regulations may prescribe the maximum rate of interest and the maximum of any loan for the purpose of limiting the amount of contribution based on annual loan charges.

(6) In this section the expression “annual loan charges” means the sums payable by a local authority or public utility society as the case may be in a local financial year in repayment of any loan (including interest charges) borrowed by such authority or society for the purposes of the provision of houses to which this section applies and includes any sums payable to a sinking fund, redemption fund or other like fund established for the repayment of any such loan, and the expression “public utility society” has the same meaning as in the Housing (Ireland) Act, 1919 .