I move:—
"That the Town Planning Bill, 1929, be read a Second Time."
I am glad to say that there will not be any great reasons for a long exposition of this Bill or for a plea for the sympathetic attention of the House to it. There has been a general acknowledgment of the need for such a Bill, and there has been approval of the main principles and purposes of the Bill, and without binding any individual to the details —I myself feel that some of the details require amendment—the Bill has been sponsored by representatives of various sections of thought in this House. I should make it clear at the outset that the Bill is the Bill of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland, godfathered by the Civics Institute, and whatever credit there is is due to the drafters of the Bill: such defects as there are, I am prepared to assume liability and responsibility for, and I know there are some defects which have passed through oversight, and there are some of its provisions which are, perhaps, defective from the point of view of practicability. The Bill is not a Party measure in any sense, and I am moving it not as a representative of a Party, but as, I hope, a representative of the general body of opinion in the House. The need for such a Bill is apparent to anyone who has had his eyes open, who knows how things have been moving in the country in recent years, and who particularly has regard to the possibilities of urban development. The Bill follows closely the lines of the British Act of 1925, which itself was a consolidating Act embodying the provisions of two Housing and Town Planning Acts——
