The Minister for the Environment, Mr Roche, warned under-performing local authorities yesterday that they would be expected to deliver on social housing programmes.
Referring to a report in The Irish Times last Wednesday, he said it was clear some of them "did not deliver" this year. Of the 47,700 council house "starts" approved for 2004, only 38,743 homes were actually provided.
"What this means is that 9,000 families who could have been housed weren't housed and that is not acceptable," the Minister said. Some local authorities were simply not ambitious enough in the housing area.
"I fought very hard for extra money in the Budget, and I expect them to deliver," he said. But when asked if he would be taking a tough line with the under-performers, Mr Roche replied: "You catch more bees with honey than with vinegar."
He said it would be wrong to cut back on their allocations because that would only hit people on the housing lists. "It's not a question of beating local authorities with a stick, but of looking for best performance from them."
Describing himself as a "very strong supporter of local government", the Minister said it was not just a matter of county and city managers delivering, but elected members, too. "It's not rocket science," he declared.
Commenting on the housing allocation of €1.24 billion for 2005, Mr Fergus O'Dowd TD, Fine Gael's environment spokesman, said it was "completely disingenuous" for the Minister to claim that this was adequate.
"The actual increase is less than 1 per cent, over the money spent this year, so local authorities will have to increase service charges to meet their budgets next year. Central government is expecting local government to do its nasty work".
But Mr Roche insisted that there should be no question of councils resorting to increased rates, charges and levies in the context of an allocation of €817 million for local government administration - 8.7 per cent more than 2004.
Legislation is being drafted to allow building societies and other financial institutions to become directly involved in the provision of affordable housing. A task force had also been set up to accelerate affordable housing in the Dublin area.
Asked how imminent was his decision on whether to authorise archaeological excavations on the route of the M3 motorway, the Minister said it was likely to be "months rather than weeks" because of the sheer volume of material he had to read.
Mr Roche said he had visited the Hill of Tara and surrounding area twice to familiarise himself with its topography. He also said he would be visiting the Woodstown Viking site in Waterford shortly to be briefed on its significance.
Referring to a €1 million allocation for the purchase of carbon credits next year, it was indicated that this was a "token provision" as the cost of meeting Ireland's target to curb its greenhouse gas emissions was likely to be a lot higher.
