Vol. 411 No. 5
9 Mr. Moynihan asked the Minister for the Environment if he has received representations from a company (details supplied) and from Dublin County Council in relation to the granting of designated status for the proposed town centre at Blanchardstown; if so, if he will outline his response to those representations; if he will bring forward proposals to grant such designation in the near future; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I have received representations from Green Property plc, Dublin County Council and others requesting designation of the proposed town centre site at Blanchardstown under the Urban Renewal Act, 1986. I have no proposals at present to extend the urban renewal scheme to further areas and all representations are responded to on this basis.
Does the Minister support the proposition in the plan that a town centre be built in Blanchardstown and, if so, what mechanisms would he use in achieving that objective in the near future?
That is not a matter for the Minister.
The Minister has an opinion.
I believe that the proposed new town centre at Blanchardstown will be built on a 92-acre site. It was zoned for a town centre by the Dublin County development plan. That is a reserved function for the elected members. If that is what the members of the local authority want, certainly I support it.
Will the Minister treat each area of County Dublin in like manner? Will he treat the area set aside for Blanchardstown town centre in the same manner as he treated the area set aside for Tallaght town centre or does it depend on who owns the property and makes a submission?
I cannot allow an extension of this question.
I reject that.
I am just asking if he will treat each area in like fashion.
If the Deputy wants information in respect of another area he should put down a specific question.
No, Sir. The question is whether he will treat Blanchardstown, the subject of the question, in like manner.
We are dealing with Blanchardstown only.
Will he treat Blanchardstown in the same manner as Tallaght was treated?
Would the Minister accept that enormous difficulties will be posed for the development of a town centre at Blanchardstown if Blanchardstown is treated diferently from Tallaght which was designated under the Urban Renewal Act?
The Deputy is ignoring the ruling of the Chair in respect of bringing in extraneous matter.
No, I am asking——
If the Deputy wants a question on Tallaght he should put it down.
We are asking if Blanchardstown will be treated in like manner.
This question deals with Blanchardstown only.
If I were to say that I would treat this area in the same fashion as Tallaght or anywhere else was treated and if that area has been designated, then in effect I would be committing myself to the designation of other areas. That is not the case. The question has to be posed whether we saying town centres or any other major development, if it is to go ahead, can only succeed or be viable if they are designated. That was never the intention under the Urban Renewal Act, 1986. It was never contemplated at that time that green field sites would be designated in this fashion. While I recognise the point the Deputy is making, that is not to say that each town centre application throughout the country must have designated status if it is to succeed.
Will the Minister accept that the situation in Blanchardstown has been dramatically changed by two events, one, the status granted to Tallaght and, second, the attempted rezoning of a large part of the lands at Quarryvale? In the circumstances, will he acknowledge that there would be great difficulty in proceeding with the Blanchardstown town centre unless some concession, under the urban renewal legislation, is forthcoming?
I believe that that case has been made by the proposers of the Blanchardstown town centre although I am not aware whether they are going ahead with the original scheme. I recognise that there has been considerable representation so far as the possibility for designation of the Blanchardstown site is concerned. I do not think it was considered or contemplated by the framework of the 1986——
No, it was not and neither was Tallaght.
Tallaght is a slightly different case and, as the Deputy knows, the village is part of the designation as there was considerable dereliction. All these matters have to be considered as it can, in certain instances, be counter-productive to confer designation on certain areas so far as city centre trading is concerned. Apart altogether from that, the Urban Renewal Act, 1986, is intended to remove dereliction and to build up centres which had fallen into decay. That is what has been happening very successfully throughout the country and I believe my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Connolly, dealt with the matter yesterday and proved that point. We must talk in a different way as far as green field development is concerned.
