asked the Minister for Local Government if he is aware of disquiet among many housing authorities that they will not be in a position to complete as many local authority houses in 1976 as in 1975; and whether he proposes to provide sufficient funds to these authorities to enable them to complete more houses in 1976.

I am not so aware. I would draw the attention of the Deputy to my general review of the local authority housing construction programme in 1976 in the course of the debate in this House on 11th and 12th May on the housing motion tabled by Members of the Opposition.

For the Deputy's benefit, I will state again the main facts of the present situation. The Government allocation in the public capital programme for 1976 for local authority housing is £65 million—an increase of £11 million, or over 20 per cent on the 1975 revised public capital programme allocation of £54.1 million.

In deciding allocations to housing authorities, I took special account of the serious housing position in the Dublin area where well over 5,000 approved applicants are waiting to be re-housed in spite of the considerable progress made by the corporation recently after years of relative neglect by the former Administration.

Dublin Corporation, as a result of the better progress now being made, needed a major increase in their allocation this year. I have them over £11 million more in 1976 that in 1975— equivalent to the total increase, at national level, in the public capital programme allocation for local authority housing.

As a direct result of this major diversion of resources to meet the needs of larger families on the corporation's approved waiting list, the amount of money available for new work elsewhere is less than I would like. Some delay is inevitable, therefore, in the commencement of some new housing schemes outside the Dublin area, particularly in areas where needs are not acute. As a result there may be some decline in completions in individual areas.

Nationally, last year 8,794 local authority dwellings were completed, an all time record and some 1,300 dwellings above the target set by me for 1975. As a result, total completions this year may be below the target of 7,500, roughly by an equivalent amount. However, I expect the total of local authority housing completions in the two year period, 1975 and 1976, to be in line with the public housing target of 15,000 for that period.

There is no obligation on me—indeed on any Minister for Local Government—to provide each year, a progressively increasing amount of money for new housing completions to a housing authority. The Deputy must be aware that the level of the construction programme fluctuates from area to area, and from year to year, and that as a consequence the number of completions in a given time in any area may vary widely.

Is the Minister aware that when he announced his capital allocation for housing this year he did not take into account the 20 per cent increase in building costs? Is the Minister aware that the number of starts made by some local authorities this year is down from 240 to 41, approximately? Is he aware that the starts on 1st January, 1976, are well down on the number of starts for the same period last year?

The Deputy is partly right and partly wrong. The Deputy seems to think that because Kerry County Council completed an all time record last year that they should attempt to break that record this year. It would not be reasonable to assume that that would be so. In fact, in 1972-73 only 141 houses were built in. Kerry while in 1973-74 105 were built. In the nine months of 1974 the number was 140 while 316 were built last year. It is estimated that 187 will be built this year which is the most Kerry County Council would be able to handle. It is an average of 250 over two years, roughly twice as many as were built in previous years in Kerry. If Deputy O'Leary is talking about Kerry he has very little to complain about.

I am speaking in relation to the country in general. Can the Minister say when the additional allocations will be made and whether they will be made in sufficient time to enable more houses to be completed by 31st December, 1976?

Additional allocations will be made in time to start them after the middle of the year but they will not be completed by the end of the year. Nobody would expect them completed by the end of the year.