I move:—
That a sum not exceeding £170,000 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending the 31st day of March, 1943, for Compensation and other Payments in connection with Injuries to Property caused by the dropping of bombs from foreign aircraft and kindred incidents while the State is not engaged in war (No. 24 of 1941).
This Vote is required to meet expenditure during the present year under the Neutrality (War Damage to Property) Act, 1941, which was passed by the Oireachtas last September. As the matter is so recent, Deputies may be interested to know the extent of the claims received under the Act, and the progress that has been made in dealing with them.
Claims arise in the main from one or other of the bombing incidents (a) at Campile, in August, 1940; (b) at Sandycove, in December, 1940; (c) at Terenure and the South Circular Road, Dublin, in January, 1941, and (d) at the North Strand in May, 1941. There were other incidents causing less extensive injuries arising from the dropping of bombs—e.g., in Counties Carlow, Louth, Wicklow, or the explosion of land or sea mines by the Army authorities, or from sea mines exploding from time to time around the coast —notably in County Wexford.
The expenditure under the Act in 1941-42 amounted to £111.880 (out of a Vote provision of £115,000). The bulk of it was paid to local authorities in recoupment of moneys spent by them —under the authority of the Government—on repairs to injured dwelling-houses, and on cash advances for the purchases of immediate necessities in the shape of furniture and/or clothing. This expenditure went to reduce pro tanto the number of claims—and the amounts claimed—by individuals for losses to which the Act applies.
The Act allows a period of 12 months for the lodgment of claims. 2,034 applications, amounting to £317,000, have so far (30th June, 1942) been lodged— including 18 from Campile, 20 from Sandycove, 397 from Terenure and South Circular Road, and 1,488 from the North Strand. Claims are still coming in at the rate of 25 to 30 each week.
The investigations which are necessary to enable my Department to deal with the applications are proceeding as rapidly as possible and offers of compensation have been made in 970 cases, in very few of which have the amounts offered been questioned by the applicants; in all of these cases agreement was eventually reached, with one exception, which is under further examination. If an applicant is not satisfied with the amount offered, he can refuse the offer and apply to the Circuit Court for compensation. The Minister for Finance is entitled to refuse to make an offer of compensation and to leave the applicant—if he so desires—to seek his remedy in the court; this course has, however, been adopted only in about 24 cases, in which the entire claims were clearly outside the scope of the Act. In no case, so far, has an application been made to the Circuit Court for compensation.
The present Vote, like last year's, contains provision for recouping local authorities' expenditure, incurred by them on structural repairs, etc. The amount included for this purpose is £72,000, part of which represents the balance which, after examination and audit, may be found due to the local authorities in respect of expenditure incurred last year; provision is also included for recoupment to Government Departments of expenditure incurred by them on reinstatement or repair of injured buildings (e.g., the homestead of the Shannon family in County Carlow). In both cases the expenditure represents emergency assistance given in necessitous cases more rapidly than could be the case under the normal procedure requiring the lodgment of formal claims under the Act.
The Estimate also includes provision for the payment that will fall to be made to the Dublin Corporation in respect of the buildings in the North Strand area which they are in process of acquiring for the purposes of a town planning scheme under the Act. The corporation will be entitled to a payment equivalent to the diminution in the market value of the acquired property occasioned by the bombing, whilst they, in their turn, will be responsible for the payment of compensation to the owners, or other persons having an estate right or interest in the acquired property, on the basis of the condition of the property before the injury took place.