asked the Minister for the Environment if he proposes to grant urban district council status to the town of Leixlip, County Kildare.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Leixlip (Kildare) Status.
Under existing legislation there is no procedure whereby a town such as Leixlip with no previous separate local authority status can attain urban district status directly. A board of town commissioners must first be established in the town. An application has recently been received by me from a group of residents of the Leixlip area requesting the constitution of Leixlip as a town with town commissioners. This application is now being considered.
I accept the correction the Minister has made in relation to my question about the proposals where town commissioners must come first. Might I ask him what is his attitude to an application for town commissioner status, in view of the fact that Leixlip have made application for urban district status and no doubt will be told by his Department that they cannot go to the second stage before going through the first?
My function in regard to this is approval or non-approval of the proposed boundaries. I cannot change them, but I can approve or disapprove. With regard to my attitude to this I indicated that I was prepared to grant Shannon Airport, which is a new town of over 8,000 people, that status when they would have all the necessary documentation and so on before me. As the Deputy probably knows, Leixlip straddles two counties which would create some complications. At this stage it is being examined.
In the Act is there no provision for excluding from town commissioner status a town which might, for example, include the hinterland of another urban area?
1858 is the Act in question.