asked the Minister for Transport and Power when he expects to receive the draft long-term plan for Dublin port being prepared by the Dublin Port and Docks Board and whether on receipt of this plan he will immediately establish the proposed public inquiry 'into the plan.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Dublin Port Plan.
37.
I am informed by the Dublin Port and Docks Board that the long-term development plans of the Dublin Bay area have been unavoidably held up due to illness of three of the senior personnel engaged on the plans and that because of this circumstance it is not possible to say now with any precision when the plans will become available. As I indicated in reply to a previous question by the Deputy in the matter, the plan when available will be referred to the planning authority—Dublin Corporation— and when the views of the authority and of other interested parties are available they will be considered by me in consultation with the Minister for Local Government. The matter will then be submitted to the Government for any necessary decisions in the context of local regional and national planning considerations.
There are a number of points here. Can the Minister state what was the first date given for this long term plan and how long the delay has been to date?
I share the Deputy's attitude in this regard. I have made my views known to the Dublin Port and Docks Board in this respect. There has been an inordinate delay over the past 12 months.
We have been told that there has been deadline after deadline but we cannot be given any deadline now and that is totally unacceptable. Will the Minister ensure that no further development takes place until the plan has been produced? That will hurry them up.
I have done pretty well what the Deputy has suggested, but I want to reassure the House that no decision will be made by them without full consideration of their proposals by me, after consultation with the Minister for Local Government, and after submission of the matter to the Government. As I said on an earlier occasion, the fullest publicity will be given to the proposals in order to enable the public and Deputies to express their views on the matter.
The Minister has not mentioned the one thing that the Government promised and that is that there would be a public inquiry as soon as the plan was ready. Why has he omitted this from the list of things?
This is a matter for Government decision.
I am sorry, but this was announced by the Minister for Industry and Commerce in June, 1969, and it was further confirmed in this House.
The Deputy can take it anyway that——
There is no doubt anyway about it: is this public inquiry to take place or has it been abandoned by the Government? Has that promise been broken?
That is a matter for consideration when we have the proposals.
The Minister for Industry and Commerce announced such an inquiry. Has a contrary decision been taken or does this still stand?
No contrary decision has been taken one way or another.
The decision still stands? There will be a public inquiry? No evasion now, say straight out.
I am not going to answer that. I am informed by——
Right.
I am not going to be submitted to this sort of bullying in the House.
Because the Minister deliberately evaded the question.
Question No. 38.
Will the Deputy please sit down while I reply to his question?
The Government have broken their promise.
Deputy FitzGerald has been in this House for a very short while but I would have thought that with his undoubted intelligence he would have ascertained the basic facts of how Government and Parliament work——
By evasion.
The Government will make their decisions about what they will do following the submission of the proposals. They will be fully published, fully considered by myself as the relevant Minister, and by the Minister for Local Government, and the Government will then announce what they propose to do and that will be done in the proper course of administration by the Government. That is what government is about.
The Minister for Industry and Commerce announced in the election campaign that there would be a public inquiry.
(Interruptions.)
That is what government is about and the Government are not run like the Literary and Historical debating society.