asked the Minister for Finance if he is aware that drainage schemes under the Special Employment Schemes in the Skibbereen area are being held up owing to the fact that rivers necessary to the drainage schemes are affected by the rights of mills to use them as mill races; and that local farmers are thereby suffering considerable inconvenience and loss of production; and if he will take immediate steps, whether by legislation or otherwise, to extinguish these old mill-race rights where they conflict with the general good of the community, and thereby enable the necessary drainage work to be carried out.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - West Cork Drainage Schemes.
16.
I assume that the area referred to is covered by the former rural district of Skibbereen. I am not aware of any drainage schemes authorised for execution by the Special Employment Schemes Office in that area which are being held up at present owing to the existence of mill rights.
The Special Employment Schemes Office have no compulsory powers and can enter on private property or interfere with property rights only with the consent of the owners. Neither have they any machinery or funds for the acquisition of property rights or the payment of compensation therefor.
I am not prepared to introduce legislation to deal with the type of case mentioned by the Deputy.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that applications for grants have had to be deferred owing to these mill rights? Surely the Parliamentary Secretary is aware that watermills are not operating now and that these rights were given years ago and that the time is at hand when the Parliamentary Secretary should abolish these rights and thereby give these farmers an opportunity of draining their land and their bogs? Surely the Parliamentary Secretary should be aware of the inconvenience caused to such farmers by the operation of these rights which should have been wiped out long ago?
Question No. 17.
Let the Parliamentary Secretary reply. Whoever gave him the answer did not know the position.
I thought Deputy Murphy was making a statement on the matter of mill rights that he wished to get on the record. If he is asking me to express an opinion, it is a different matter. He asked about a specific case in County Cork and I have answered that question.
Will the Parliamentary Secretary agree with my assertion that his answer is incorrect? I am not saying it is untruthful because I know the Parliamentary Secretary is not untruthful. He is badly briefed and, as a result, has made a statement to the House that is not in accordance with the facts. Will he agree to look up this matter again, first of all, and make sure that his statement here to-day is incorrect, and will he not agree that objections based on mill rights should be obsolete in the year 1966?
I do not think that we should make any snap decision with regard to the waiving of anybody's rights because Deputy Murphy asks us to.
Will the Parliamentary Secretary not agree that these rights are no longer in use?
I have no such information.
In promoting legislation to rectify this position, you would not injure anybody.
The Deputy has already asked these questions twice.
I will be asking them 20 times twice before I am finished.