asked the Minister for Local Government whether he has studied tenders for low cost housing at Oldcourt, Bray, County Wicklow; if he has accepted one; and if he is in a position to give details of the tender or tenders examined.

There is no proposal before my Department for the acceptance of a tender for this scheme. I understand that a proposal for this scheme under the guaranteed order project has been received by the National Building Agency and recommended for acceptance by Wicklow County Council. Pending the council's decision, it would not be appropriate for me to comment on or give details of the proposal.

Is it not a fact that tenders were not asked for this scheme and that, in fact, a contract amounting to almost £1 million has been offered by the Department to one builder? Other builders were not allowed to tender for this scheme.

On 28th June, 1971, a formal request was received in the Department from Wicklow County Council to participate in the guaranteed order project for a number of schemes including Oldcourt, which is south of Bray. I understand that following discussions one firm, from the group that had been short-listed, was selected in consultation with the housing authority.

By "housing authority" does the Minister mean the council or the manager and engineer? Were the council consulted on this matter? So far as I can see, out of the 26 firms listed by the Minister only one firm, who had not built a prototype, have been offered a contract. None of the other firms got a chance of getting this £1 million contract.

If the Wicklow County Council decide that the proposals and the price they have obtained under the guaranteed order project is not acceptable, it is open to them to invite tenders under the normal procedures.

The Minister must agree that this method of giving a contract to one firm, particularly when he has in his Department letters from other contractors looking for this scheme, is completely wrong and should not be allowed to occur, particularly with regard to the amount of money involved.

It is not wrong.

Is this not a dangerous trend on the part of the Department? To me it sounds like the elimination of competitive tendering and the Minister is standing over it.

It is wrong of the Deputy to insinuate that. I have explained this in the House and on many occasions outside. Local authorities and the community in general benefit substantially because of a considerable saving of capital expenditure. This is possible because of the greater degree of efficiency which can be achieved by using this method. It has been competitive in so far as advertisements were placed in the public media inviting interested people to submit design and construction proposals with their price. These were examined and those which complied with the specifications and were found to be generally satisfactory were put on a list. This list was circulated to the local authorities and they can make their selection from it. If they decide not to do that, they can use the normal procedure of inviting tenders by way of public advertisement.

Is it not a fact that if they use the normal procedure they will have to take their place at the end of the queue and they will not get money from the Department?

The Minister said earlier that a firm should at least have a prototype of the building. The firm of Sisk, who have got this contract, have not a prototype of the building. There are other firms who are in this business in the county and are available to do this work but they have been deprived of getting the contract.

As I stated in a reply to Deputy Cooney, where some proposals for a new form of construction were being suggested, we required that a prototype be constructed so that the completed houses could be examined thoroughly. I was referring in particular to timber-frame houses. It is not necessary that persons making proposals under this scheme should first of all build a prototype house before qualifying. If I were to do that the scheme would never get off the ground. In fact, some of the houses built under this scheme are occupied, or are about to be occupied——

I have told the Minister that firms were deprived of this contract——

I have allowed Deputy Kavanagh to put several supplementary questions. We cannot debate this question all afternoon.

If it were left to Opposition Deputies the whole housing programme would be slowed down substantially. I am making a genuine effort to accelerate the programme but this is the kind of comment I get.

56.

asked the Minister for Local Government if he will sanction a loan for the construction of houses by Wicklow County Council at (a) Ashford, (b) Rathnew, (c) Newtownmountkennedy, (d) Glenealy and (e) Rathdrum.

I have sanctioned the loans in respect of the schemes at Rathnew and Glenealy. Loan applications for the other schemes are under consideration and a decision will be given on them as soon as possible.

Is it not the position that the Minister will not sanction money for a conventional type building at the moment? The other type is the low-cost unit type house.

That is not so. I am anxious that the community and the local authorities should benefit from the substantial savings obtainable under the guaranteed order project and I encourage them to avail of that scheme.