asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health whether he is aware of the dangerously overcrowded condition of the graveyard at Skerries, County Dublin; whether it has been brought to his notice that frequent representations have been made to the county board of health without success to have the graveyard extended, and if he will state whether his Department would be prepared to have the present cemetery examined with a view to taking the necessary steps for its enlargement.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Skerries (County Dublin) Graveyard.
Representations as to the overcrowded condition of the graveyard were recently made to me by Deputy P.J. Fogarty. I am aware that the matter has been under consideration by the County Dublin Board of Health for some time. Definite proposals for an extension of the existing burial ground were submitted by the board to my Department on the 24th ultimo.
Arising out of the reply of the Parliamentary Secretary, is he aware that that reply is the reply that has been given to the people of Skerries for the past 18 years, and that, as a result, the dead are being buried on the footpath? Am I to take it from the reply of the Parliamentary Secretary that, since the people of Skerries live beside the sea and have a knowledge of the sea, they will have to avail of the sea for burial purposes?
I am afraid that the Deputy has missed the tide in this connection. Deputy P.J. Fogarty has made representations on this matter already. Evidently, Deputy McGowan, in his anxiety to get in his supplementary question, did not take sufficient note of the reply that was given to his question, but in the reply it was stated that definite proposals for an extension of the existing burial ground were submitted by the board to my Department on the 24th ultimo. Therefore, I do not see how that reply could have been conveyed to the board of health from time to time during the past couple of years.
My point is that representations have been made to the board of health without success, to have the graveyard extended. Their reply for the past 18 years has been that definite steps were being taken to have the graveyard extended. I am suggesting that the Minister's reply puts the matter no further.