When I moved the adjournment last week, I was dealing with the false, slanderous allegations made by Deputy Cluskey here and which were so widely and maliciously publicised. I had not concluded dealing with the first of the two specific cases with which Deputy Cluskey dealt. I was dealing with the false allegations he made in regard to the housing scheme at Kilbarrack. The facts which I outlined were briefly that in June, 1962 this firm of builders applied for permission to develop 95 acres at Kilbarrack for private housing. Permission to carry out this development was refused in August, 1962 by the planning authority, on the ground that the lands in question were required for municipal housing. The firm of builders in question appealed to the Minister for Local Government on the ground, mainly, that this land had been purchased over a year previously, that it was intended to provide up to 1,000 low cost houses on the site, that these would be similar to the type of houses that the corporation would provide and that they would cater for the same type of person as the corporation houses would have applied to.
It was also contended by the private firm of builders that their building proposals were ready to start, whereas it was represented that it would be some years before the corporation would be in a position to commence their operations if permission was not granted. I told the House that these arguments impressed the Minister at the time and that the appeal was allowed on 7th May, 1963, almost one year after the application for planning permission was made to the corporation, so that a year was lost with that process and that despite the fact that this planning permission had been granted in May, 1963, in July, 1963 the corporation made a compulsory purchase order on these 95 acres and other lands in the area and that this compulsory purchase order further prevented the development of this land which could have gone on. Obviously the principle had been decided in May, 1963, and for this reason the compulsory purchase order was not confirmed by the Minister for this particular parcel of land, except for a small portion of it in respect of which the compulsory purchase order was confirmed. However, the compulsory purchase order was confirmed in respect of a further 228 acres in the area which was adjoining this particular site. I also pointed out that the municipal housing on the land in respect of which the compulsory purchase order was confirmed has not started yet but that the development which was held up from 1962, due to all this process, has been in progress now since 1966 and that it is practically certain that the entire 900 houses which it is intended to erect on this site will be finished in this year.