asked the Minister for Local Government if he has sanctioned the transfer of a site for a cottage to be erected by Meath County Council for James Galligan, Julianstown, Drogheda, County Meath, from a position beside the school, church, water supply and E.S.B. service to another site which is two and a half miles from the school, two miles from a church, one mile from a public water supply and which will not be serviced by the E.S.B. current; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Meath Cottage: Transfer of Site.
32.
The reply to the first part of the question is in the negative. The Compulsory Purchase Order submitted by Meath County Council which is at present under consideration in my Department includes a cottage site for Mr. Galligan. A decision on the Order will be made shortly. An objection was received in respect of this site and I understand that at the public inquiry the objector offered an alternative site. The acquisition of an alternative site by agreement would not require my consent.
Is it a fact then that the alternative site does not have to be inspected by the Department inspectors, in the same way as all the other sites in the scheme were inspected, before it is sanctioned for the erection of a cottage?
The question of its acquisition is a matter for the local authority and the inspection the Deputy is presumably referring to is that which would arise as a result of objection being made and a local inquiry being held in regard to the proposals sent up by the county council to my Department.
Is the Minister not aware that even when sites are acquired by agreement, they are inspected by an official of the Minister's Department— he may not be an engineer—before the local authorities may build houses there? Would the same situation not arise in this case?
Naturally, the procedure normally followed will apply to this site, but that is not what is concerned in the question put down by the Deputy.
It is not, but will the site be inspected, if it is not inspected one way, the other way? Has the Minister sanctioned the change of site?
The Minister does not have to sanction a change of site. The only sanction required would be that following the inquiry held into the proposal to acquire a number of sites to one of which objection was taken. The objector at the local public inquiry held out the hope that an alternative site could be provided, without any question of compulsion. That site was apparently examined by the C.M.O.H. and some of the engineering staff of the council. After everything has been taken into account, that site is regarded as a suitable alternative to the one to which objection was taken. It now transpires that in so far as the acquisition of an alternative site is concerned, that procedure does not require my consent.
In view of the fact that I am prepared to state that the site offered as an alternative is entirely unsuitable by any standards, unless we accept that farm workers should be put in the back of the wilds, will the Minister have the matter reconsidered?
The only thing I can say is that the information the Deputy gives is, according to the information I have, incorrect.
I am prepared to stand over that statement anywhere.