PART V.

Labourers' Cottages.

33. —(1) The council of a county shall, as respects their functional area, have the like powers as are conferred on an urban authority by section 5 of the Housing and Labourers Act, 1937 (No. 42 of 1937), as amended, and the purposes of that section shall be deemed to be purposes for which a council of a county may borrow under section 37 of the Act of 1948, and the said section 5 shall be construed and have effect accordingly.

(2) Where a notice has been served, whether before or after the passing of this Act, under section 19 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1931 (No. 50 of 1931), by a housing authority on a person having control of a house and the authority, in pursuance of section 20 of the said Act, has executed the works specified in such notice, the Minister may, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, make, out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas, to such authority a grant not exceeding whichever of the following amounts is the smaller, that is to say:—

(a) £80 for each separate dwelling forming part of such house after the execution of such works,

(b) one third of the cost of such works.

(3) In calculating the expenses incurred by a housing authority under section 20 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1931 , the amount of any grant paid under subsection (2) of this section to the authority shall be deducted by the authority.

34. —(1) Section 35 of the Act of 1948 is hereby amended by the substitution of the following for subsection (2):—

“(2) Regulations under this section shall provide that in the letting of cottages regard shall be had to the character, industry, occupation, family circumstances and existing housing conditions of the applicants and subject thereto first preference shall, wherever practicable, be given to applicants who are—

(a) persons normally engaged in doing agricultural work for hire on the land of some other person and whose principal means of living is such work,

(b) men normally engaged in doing agricultural work on the land of relatives with whom they reside, or

(c) herdsmen,

and second preference shall, wherever practicable, be given to applicants with families living—

(i) in overcrowded conditions where one or more than one member of the family is suffering from tuberculosis;

(ii) in one-roomed dwellings where one or more than one member of the family is suffering from tuberculosis or where one or more than one member of the family (exclusive of the parents) has attained the age of twelve years; or

(iii) in a dwelling which has been condemned as unfit for human habitation.

(3) Conditions shall, for the purposes of this section, be deemed to be overcrowded, at any time when the number of persons ordinarily sleeping in a cottage intended or used for occupation by the working classes or agricultural labourers, and the number of rooms in the cottage either—

(a) are such that any two of those persons, being persons twelve years old or more of opposite sexes and not being persons living together as husband and wife, must sleep in the same room; or

(b) are such that the free air space, in any room used as a sleeping apartment, for any person is less than four hundred cubic feet (the height of the room, if it exceeds eight feet being taken to be eight feet for the purpose of calculating free air space).”

(2) Section 35 of the Act of 1948 as amended by subsection (1) of this section shall not apply to houses provided by virtue of section 35 of this Act.

35. —(1) A housing authority acting in the execution of the Labourers Acts, may acquire land either by agreement with the consent of the Minister or compulsorily under the powers conferred by those Acts for all or any of the following purposes:—

(a) the laying out and construction of public streets or roads and open spaces on the land and the carrying out of such other works as may be necessary for or incidental to the development of the land for building purposes;

(b) the erection of houses and the sale or lease thereof to persons irrespective of whether they are or are not agricultural labourers;

(c) the sale or lease of the land or part thereof to public utility societies and to such persons for the purpose and on the condition that such societies and persons shall erect and maintain thereon such number of houses as may be fixed by the housing authority and in accordance with plans approved by the authority.

(2) A housing authority may sell or lease land or houses under this section with the consent of the Minister and all capital money received in respect of any transaction under this section shall be applied in or towards the purchase of other land for the purposes of the Labourers Acts or, with the consent of the Minister, to any purpose, including the repayment of borrowed money, to which capital money may properly be applied.

(3) Any acquisition, sale or lease of land by a housing authority effected before the passing of this Act which would be valid if effected by virtue of subsection (1) of this section shall be and be deemed always to have been validly effected under the Labourers Acts.

(4) The provisions of the Labourers Act, 1936 (No. 24 of 1936), relating to the purchase of cottages shall not apply to houses erected by a housing authority by virtue of paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of this section.