asked the Minister for Finance if he is aware that many worthwhile and necessary works under the auspices of the Special Employment Schemes Office have from time to time to be abandoned because of the refusal of certain landowners to give the necessary consent; and, if so, if he will make arrangements, if necessary by the introduction of legislation, to empower the Special Employment Schemes Office to resort to compulsory powers of acquiring right-of-way in such cases in future.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Special Employment Schemes.
39.
Taken as a whole only a very small percentage of the proposals submitted to the Special Employment Schemes Office have to be abandoned because of the refusal of certain landholders to give their consent to the work, and it is found from experience that many such objections are withdrawn after the lapse of a period of time.
I do not propose to introduce legislation to empower the Special Employment Schemes Office to resort to compulsory powers of acquiring rights-of-way.
The State is always jealous of any interference with private ownership, and would, no doubt, insist on measures to safeguard individual landholders against the danger of arbitrary actions; so that the exercise of compulsory powers would necessarily involve a whole legal procedure:— the serving of preliminary notices, the hearing of objections, the question of compensation and its assessment, and probably a right of appeal. An elaborate procedure of this kind would be out of place in regard to the relatively small works which are undertaken under the minor schemes.
Moreover, an imposed settlement would probably accentuate the bad feeling amongst neighbours which is very often the cause of the original objection.
In some cases, as for instance when the work involves the construction of a new section of road or the widening of an existing road, the objection may not be unreasonable, as the objecting landholder may find that he would have to surrender an undue proportion of his land in order to accommodate landholders who would not have to give anything.