I move that the Committee agree with the Seanad in the following amendment:—
Section 11. At the end of the section two new sub-sections added as follows:—
(3) Any person aggrieved by a declaration made under Section 59 of the Principal Act or this section may appeal within the prescribed time to the Minister against such declaration, and thereupon the Minister shall either confirm or annul such declaration.
(4) Section 59 of the Principal Act is hereby amended by the deletion therefrom of paragraph (g) of sub-section (1), and the said section shall be construed and have effect accordingly.
Section 11 of the Bill was introduced on the Report Stage in the Dáil. It is intended to extend the powers contained in Section 58 of the principal Act to works, the carrying out of which may be undertaken without the consent of the local authority and the remedying of which, when the scheme comes into operation, would prove unduly costly or seriously injure the amenities of the area. A planning authority will now have the power under that section to prohibit the doing of any work and if the prohibition is not observed to declare its nonobservance illegal, subject to the penalties imposed by Section 58 of the Act. Obviously, there must be an appeal from such a declaration. Such an appeal was intended under the provisions of Section 59 of the principal Act but that provision is not considered altogether suitable because it makes the appeal from the declaraton part of an appeal against a special prohibition in respect of which the declaration was made. The result might be that where a declaration is made some time after the making of a special prohibition there would be no right of appeal. The amendment introduced in the Seanad provides for a separate and distinct appeal from any declaration made under Section 59 of the principal Act or Section 11 of this Bill.
