Vol. 467 No. 1
171 Mr. L. Fitzgerald asked the Minister for the Environment if his Department will intervene to direct Fingal County Council to deal with the problem at Brickfield, Seagrange Park adjoining Sutton Park, Dublin 13, where it is alleged that there is illegal impaction over an ordnance survey defined stream, the area being zoned recreational; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12469/96]
Section 31 (1) (a) of the Local Government (Planning and Development) Act, 1963 provides that, where any development, which is not exempted development, takes place without planning permission, the planning authority may and shall, if so directed by the Minister for the Environment, within five years of such development being carried out, serve a notice on the owner and occupier of the land requiring that the land be restored to its condition before the development took place. It has never been the practice for the Minister to issue such directions and I do not think that it would be appropriate for me to do so in this case. The enforcement of planning control is, essentially, a matter for the local planning authorities and complaints about lack of enforcement can be pursued with them, at official level or through the elected members.
