Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 13 Jul 1949

Vol. 117 No. 6

Committee on Finance. - Adjournment Debate—Howth Pier Road.

Mr. P.J. Burke

To-day I put down a simple question about the condition of the west pier in Howth and, as a result of the unsatisfactory nature of the Parliamentary Secretary's reply, I am forced to raise this matter on the Adjournment. Does the Parliamentary Secretary realise that a number of the replies given to my questions during the past 12 months have been evasive, most of them "shilly-shally" answers to the effect that we are going to get something in the near by-and-by? Does the Parliamentary Secretary realise that the west pier in Howth is within the corporation area? Does he realise that a person walking down that pier is in danger of being tripped up by getting into potholes or hitting rough stones along the pier? Any person riding a bicycle is in danger of falling right over the pier into the water.

In reply to my question to-day I got a statement from the Parliamentary Secretary setting out that the resurfacing of the west pier at Howth is one of the works of maintenance which fell into arrears during the emergency and it will be dealt with when more pressing works have been completed. Will the Parliamentary Secretary guarantee people who are using lorries bringing fish from the west pier in Howth when they break springs because of the condition of that pier? Will he compensate them for any such loss? If you go down to the wilds of Connemara or some other backward part of the country—even up on the mountainside—you will get a better road than there is on the west pier of Howth.

It was mentioned here that it was during the emergency the surface of the roadway became so bad. I was down there several times during the emergency, because that is one of the areas that has demanded a good deal of my attention from time to time. I found when I was going down there a fortnight ago that I had to drive very slowly in the small car I have and, even with that, I very nearly broke a spring. Even if I did break one I would not follow up the matter with the Parliamentary Secretary because he would probably say it was some political stunt if I were to do a thing like that. I can say that numbers of those who are making a living going up and down that pier have broken the springs of their cars.

This west pier at Howth is very close to Dublin. The Parliamentary Secretary is aware that it is within the corporation area and he is also aware that tourists visit the place frequently. If you have to walk down that pier you must do so very slowly.

Mr. Davin

I walked down there recently and it was all right.

Mr. P.J. Burke

Deputy Davin has methods of going to Howth Pier that I have not got; he can sail around up to the point of the pier; I have not a boat. This pier is definately in a bad state and I find it necessary to show up this very inefficient Parliamentary Secretary who was most verbose when he was on this side of the House about getting work done. When he was over here on these benches he almost swallowed up the Ministers and the Parliamentary Secretaries, but since he went over to the other side of the House nothing has been done by him. So far as Howth Harbour is concerned he made an effort to dredge it. They put the dredger there for a short time and it went out with the next tide. That shows how I have been treated by the Parliamentary Secretary since he took over the reins of office.

If he tells me that the road leading to one of the most important harbours in North County Dublin is good enough for people who have to make their living there, and is good enough for tourists, I and those who know the circumstances could not possibly agree with him. The tourist trade last year was worth £35,000,000 to us and it should be encouraged, and the least we might do is make a decent road for tourists along that pier. There are many people who would like to walk down there and view the beauties of Howth. They cannot do so because of the condition of the roadways there. They would be in danger and would risk their lives, all because of the shilly-shally policy of the Parliamentary Secretary. The roadway there is bad because it has been neglected.

If the Parliamentary Secretary continues to answer me and other Deputies on this side as he has done, trying to make a sneer and a jeer of it, when we are deeply concerned about our constituents, I am afraid we shall have to take some other measures to deal with that class of hypocrisy. Does anyone think it is for pleasure that I have had to put down questions dealing with matters that concern my constituents? One of the most important piers in North County Dublin requires immediate attention and yet it is treated in this manner by the Parliamentary Secretary. I challenge him to go out on that pier to-morrow and I will give him £20 if he can drive along it at ten miles an hour.

Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance (Mr. Donnellan)

I was there to-day; when I saw your question, I went out there this morning. Do not advance it too far.

Mr. P.J. Burke

Do you not agree that I am telling the truth?

Mr. Donnellan

I know the reply.

Mr. P.J. Burke

It will be just like the Parliamentary Secretary's reply to other questions I have put down. It will be sheer misrepresentation. I have given the facts as they are and I want some satisfaction for the question that I have put down. I am asking the Parliamentary Secretary if he is going to tell me that this is not urgent work. This pier is almost a quarter of a mile long and it is a very important one. There is a number of visiting boats and yachts calling there and it gives a very bad impression when material is so plentiful. Possibly it is the Minister for Finance who is responsible for not giving money to the Parliamentary Secretary to carry out that work, because materials are very plentiful now and there is no emergency of any kind. You can get all the material you want to repair the pier and surely you have enough material to fill some of the pot-holes. Surely you have a roller for rolling the pier. If you have not, I will try and make representations to the Dublin Corporation asking them to lend you a roller. Indeed, the condition of the whole pier, generally speaking, is not a credit to your Department.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

The Deputy ought to address the Chair.

Mr. P.J. Burke

Through you, the Parliamentary Secretary told me that he was out there this morning at Howth, and he saw the pier. If he is going to tell me that he is going to change his mind from the answer he gave this afternoon, I will end this debate very shortly. If he is not going to change his mind, I am going to talk here for fully ten minutes more. If the Parliamentary Secretary is going to stand up in this House and state that the pier is good enough and that he is going to leave it as it is for another few years until a few more cars are broken, I am going to advise all my constituents from now on that I have duly warned the Parliamentary Secretary that if any accidents happen to anybody using a lorry on that pier as a result of the condition of it, if there are any true bursts or any springs broken, I am going to ask them to apply for compensation to the Parliamentary Secretary. I shall go into the public courts and say that I duly warned the Parliamentary Secretary beforehand. I will also inform the people of Howth that the only excuse the Parliamentary Secretary has for not doing up the Pier is that there is more urgent work in this country to be carried out. Can the Parliamentary Secretary point out to me where there is more urgent work than that to be carried out? I want to point out again that from the day the Parliamentary Secretary took office he has put things into abeyance. That is part and parcel of that glorious conglomeration known as the inter-Party Government on the other side of the House.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

That is very far from the point.

Mr. P.J. Burke

If the Parliamentary Secretary cannot get any tar, we might supply him with it or we might supply him with some stones.

Mr. S. Collins

You might supply him with feathers.

Mr. P.J. Burke

I am delighted to see that Deputy Collins has got back his job in the flower shop. He had lost it for some time back. If this work is not carried out and if the people are going to be treated with contempt and ignored by the Parliamentary Secretary and his Department, I am going to give the Parliamentary Secretary all the annoyance and trouble I can until this work is carried out. When you get a contemptuous answer like the one I got from the Parliamentary Secretary, it is time somethings was done about it.

I am not in the habit of raising questions on the Adjournment. I have been in the House now for five years and it is the second question in those five years that I have raised on the Adjournment. I do not believe in wasting the time of the House. When the Parliamentary Secretary was on this side of the House he believed in it and many a question he raised on the Adjournment. I thought that we were going to have a miracle directly the Parliamentary Secretary got over there because he had such wild promises and such wild schemes when he was over here. We find that he is doing nothing now but carrying out some work that we had already initiated as a Government on the other side of the House.

There is another matter that I do not want to raise to-night, but I have raised it with the Board of Works before and that is the question dealing with——

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

This question deals——

Mr. P.J. Burke

Give me a chance, now.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

This question deals with the road leading along the west pier at Howth. That is all the Deputy can raise to-night.

Mr. Moran

He is raising that question.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

I do not want any advice from Deputy Moran.

Mr. P.J. Burke

You did not give me a chance to develop my point at all.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

The Deputy has just one minute more and that is all.

Mr. P.J. Burke

The only thing I have to say is that I have spoken as far as I can and made the best case I can for this pier, notwithstanding the Parliamentary Secretary's satellites who tried to interrupt me at his back. They have failed and they will fail as far as that is concerned. I will not be intimidated by them.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

I am calling on the Parliamentary Secretary.

Mr. P.J. Burke

I want to say finally to the Parliamentary Secretary that if he gives me an answer in the same shilly-shally way as he has been answering me in the last 18 months in this House, I will give him all the trouble possible until this work is carried out and I am saying that for the People I have the honour to represent.

Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance (Mr. Donnellan)

It is usual when a Deputy of any Party raises a question on the Adjournment to have at least some members of his own Party to listen to him. On this occasion, when Deputy Burke raised this question, members of the Government Party came in to listen to him because, it appears, they expected to derive some amusement from his performance, while the Deputies of his own Party left the House because they were ashamed.

A Deputy

That is true. There is only one other member of the Party present.

Mr. P.J. Burke

Deal with the question and do not be personal. Do not be shilly-shallying.

Mr. Donnellan

The Deputy put down a question addressed to the Minister for Finance.

Mr. P.J. Burke

Answer it.

Mr. Donnellan

The question asked was whether he was aware that the road leading along the west pier at Howth was in a very bad condition and, if so, whether he would have the road repaired. The reply which I gave to that question was that the resurfacing of the west pier at Howth was one of a number of works, the maintenance of which fell into arrears during the emergency. I may add that not since long before the war was anything done there. The concluding part of my answer stated that the work would be dealt with when more pressing works are completed. Deputies must realise that, leading into that pier, there is portion of a road or a path for which the Board of Works is not responsible. We have no control over that portion of the road leading to the west pier. If Deputy Burke is a member of the local authority it is his job to look after the portion of the road that leads to that pier.

Donnchadh Ó Briain

He is not.

Mr. Donnellan

It is a good job he is not.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

The Parliamentary Secretary is entitled to reply without interruption.

Mr. P.J. Burke

These are his usual tactics, of course.

Mr. Donnellan

The approach to the pier is not under our control, but may I repeat that it is our intention to deal with that portion of the pier which is under our control as soon as more important works have been completed. Deputy Burke may give expression to foolish statements here to the effect that people fell off their bicycles over the pier and that they were in danger of being drowned or that other people fell off the pier and had their legs broken and that they might have been drowned. So far as I am concerned, Deputy Burke is a Mayo man. There are important piers in Mayo.

Mr. P.J. Burke

I am concerned with County Dublin now.

Mr. Donnellan

The Deputy came from Mayo originally. I know, without being told it, that Howth is very near Dublin. I went out there this morning to see the condition of the road of which the Deputy complained. There are many other important places in Ireland in which we are committed to carry out what we consider more important works than this, but when we get an opportunity it will not take us such a terribly long time to come along and deal with this work. If every other Deputy in whose constituency there are works of this character were to treat me as Deputy Burke did in this instance, I would be here every night in the year to deal with questions on the Adjournment. Certainly I would say there are 300 more important works than the work which Deputy Burke has raised here to-night. Deputy Burke says that he never raises anything without good cause, but we have had already the question of the widow's oats on the Adjournment.

Mr. P.J. Burke

Deal with the question.

Mr. Donnellan

The question of the bank manager's tomatoes was also raised on the Adjournment.

Mr. P.J. Burke

On a point of order, I put down a specific question to which I am entitled to get a reply. It is in keeping with the Parliamentary Secretary's general conduct here to introduce personalities instead of answering questions. That is all he is able to do.

Mr. Donnellan

Of course, in a supplementary question to-day he tried to put it across that our case rested on the emergency. This Government never used the emergency as an excuse for anything; it was the Party to which the Deputy belongs who used the emergency as an excuse for years. Before the emergency ever arose, there were questions down about this pier, when Deputy Burke's Party was in power and they did nothing with it at that time. I am telling the Deputy now that, as soon as we possibly can, we shall go out and repair that portion of the road for which we are responsible but the place where the Deputy alleges people are falling off bicycles and breaking their necks is not our responsibility. It is the responsibility of the local authority and we cannot do anything about it.

Mr. P.J. Burke

That is a misrepresentation. It is your responsibility.

The Dáil adjourned at 11.55 p.m. until Thursday, 14th July, at 3 p.m.