I want the House to agree to postpone consideration of this measure for six months when the matter will be dealt with in Government time. The Bill was introduced into the Seanad by an individual Senator, with the co-operation of the Institute of Architects, and deals with a very important matter. It will throw a very considerable amount of work on local authorities, and a very considerable amount of work and supervision on the Department of Local Government. Therefore, it is a Bill, the general principles of which, as well as the drafting, will require very careful and systematic review in the Department before I could agree that it was a satisfactory measure to pass into legislation. The matter is important, and it has been given a very considerable amount of attention in the Department up to the present. We have had to place it in our work in its proper perspective, and give it the particular place in our list that we thought the subject, as compared with the others we are dealing with, was entitled to. We will have to take the Dublin Bill and the Traffic Bill before we can effectively deal with the subject of town planning. I did not come in on the consideration to this matter, but I went to the Seanad on the Fifth Stage and explained my position, and, I think, satisfied that House that really the subject would be prejudiced by an attempt to deal with it here at an earlier date than that suggested by me. By that time, I hope to be in the necessary position to give the House the benefit of the results of Departmental examination of the position. I am therefore suggesting to the House to put down the Second Reading of the Bill for this day six months.
Town Planning and Rural Amenities Bill, 1929 (Seanad)—Second Stage.
I agree that the matter is one of very considerable importance but, at the same time, it is one that has been before the Seanad for a very long time, and has been the subject of consideration by a Special Committee. During the time that it has been before the Oireachtas it appears to us that there ought to have been time for the officials of the Local Government Department to make the necessary inquiries as to how it would affect particular areas. Some of us had the idea that it might be possible for the Minister and his Department to have given such consideration to the subject of town planning as to enable them to adapt whatever sections of the Bill that they thought were adaptable, and to have them embodied in the Local Government Bill that is now before the House. Some people who have given a good deal of consideration to the matter were of opinion that there are principles embodied in the Town Planning and Rural Amenities Bill that could, with reason and with advantage, be embodied in the Local Government (Dublin) Bill. I think there was an idea in some people's minds, too, that if it was not the intention of the Government to introduce broadly the principle of town planning as outlined in this Bill into the Local Government Bill dealing with the extension of the boundaries of Dublin, it might have been possible for some members of the House to put down amendments to the Dublin Bill. That is a hypothetical question which there is no use putting to you now, sir, but there was an idea that it might have been possible to introduce some of these principles by way of amendments into that Bill, and perhaps it would be possible to do so even still. We did think that concurrently with the discussion of the Greater Dublin Bill as it is technically called, it would be possible to discuss this Town Planning Bill, and so make the legislation run concurrently, and make the town planning principles available when the Local Government Bill would have become law.
We are not satisfied that this matter should be postponed for six months. We think that it ought to be dealt with as soon as possible, and we think that when the Local Government (Dublin) Bill is being considered the town planning principles ought to be considered and discussed at the same time.
What the Minister desires is that the order should be set down for this day six months for the Second Reading of this Bill, giving it at that point Government time. If an order were made under those conditions any other member of the House could not move the Second Reading of this Bill at an earlier point. If nobody moves the Second Reading of the Bill it goes off the Order Paper. We will allow the matter to stand over until next week and see what Deputies intend to do about it. In general, that is the position. If nobody likes to put down a motion for the Second Reading the Bill is simply removed from the Order Paper. It might be taken by a private Deputy in Private Deputies' time, or it might be taken by the Minister when he is satisfied to take it.
Can I give notice that the Second Reading be taken this day fortnight?
The Deputy could give notice for the Second Reading. Of course, other Bills on the Order Paper would have precedence of it.
We might leave it over for a week, but I think Deputy O'Kelly will see that the Town Planning Bill and the Local Government (Dublin) Bill are two very different matters, and that the Town Planning Bill can be much more satisfactorily discussed completely detached from any particular area. Town planning is important from the Dublin point of view and from the point of view of Cork and the bigger areas, but I think it would be found more satisfactory to discuss it in a detached way and apart from any special consideration of Dublin. Again, there will not be Government time for this measure before the summer; I think that that must be clear when we take into consideration the amount of financial business that has to be got through and the amount of Private Deputies' business that is still on the Paper. I doubt if any party in the House could have given consideration to the very important principles that are involved in this measure, and I think that the matter will not suffer at all from the mature consideration that can be given to it during the next six months. I would deprecate an important subject like this being put down for consideration during Private Deputies' time, because I think that the discussion would be unsatisfactory and would be prejudiced. It is definitely a fact that while a very considerable amount of attention and consideration has been given to this matter, I cannot offer to the House within the next few months the full and ripe results of Departmental consideration that the House would be entitled to. I think everyone will appreciate that if a measure like this had been introduced as a private measure I would have had to oppose it, because it is essentially a measure which requires a very great amount of Departmental consideration. If we allow the matter to stand over for a week I think we will have a clear understanding of what is involved.
It will be put down for next Thursday.
Order discharged: to be taken on Thursday, 20th March.