This Bill is almost wholly procedural. In its main provisions, it proposes to improve and simplify procedures relating to the raising of money for local capital projects and to the compulsory acquisition of land by local authorities for the purposes of their powers and duties.
In Part I of the Bill, the definition of "appropriate Minister" will have the effect that control of borrowing, lending or compulsory land acquisition will be exercised by the Minister charged with the supervision of the functions of the local authority to which the particular borrowing, lending or acquisition relates, or, in the case of a project involving more than one Minister, the Minister for Local Government, if he is concerned, and in other cases the Minister having the major interest in the proposal.
Part II represents a considerable measure of consolidation combined with amendment of the existing law. It will substitute a few simple statutory provisions relating to borrowing and lending for the numerous and complex enactments, spread over more than sixty statutes, dealing with the control of these functions. Among the proposals is one to remove the remaining statutory limitations on borrowing, in the realisation that the effective control of local indebtedness must be exercised by Ministers in the light of national economic and social policies, rather than by rigid statutory limits which may have become out-of-date. Statutory limits have never proved either effective or useful, and have already been discarded for a wide range of services.
The Bill provides for the making by the Minister for Local Government of general regulations relating to borrowing. It also introduces some new provisions which should prove of value. Among these may be mentioned the power to de-control certain borrowings by Ministerial directions, that is, to exempt them from the need for specific Ministerial sanction. Local authorities are also being empowered to borrow on behalf of the other local authorities. Contributions towards loan charges, which is the form taken by Exchequer assistance to local authority housing and some other services, may moreover, under the Bill, be paid direct by the Department concerned to the lenders. Since the lenders are in the majority of cases the Commissioners of Public Works, this provision should enable a greatly simplified procedure to be introduced in relation to the subsidising of loan repayments.
I should emphasise that this Part of the Bill does not affect the purposes for which local authorities may borrow money. A decision to raise a particular loan is taken in the light of local needs whether they be housing, health, sanitary services, bridges or any other local authority service. The Bill merely provides a better mechanism for the implementation of decisions to borrow already taken on the merits of the projects in question.
Part III of the Bill is concerned mainly with the procedure for the compulsory acquisition of land. It also seeks to clarify the powers of local authorities to provide office accommodation for their staffs.
The principal object of this Part is to substitute what is known as compulsory purchase order procedure for provisional orders in the acquisition of land for certain services. At present, land may be acquired by compulsory purchase order for housing purposes, health services, public assistance and mental hospitals. These powers of compulsory acquisition extend to the provision of office accommodation for local staffs engaged on these services. Land may also be acquired compulsorily for sanitary services, roads, bridges, the fire service and certain other purposes, including the provision of offices and places of meeting for the local authorities concerned with these services, but in these cases the procedure to be employed is known as the provisional order procedure. What the Bill proposes to do is to extend compulsory purchase order procedure to all those services for which land may now be acquired compusorily by way of provisional orders. The principle of compulsory acquisition of land is not being extended to any new services or purposes. Section 10 of the Bill merely provides that where a compulsory power of acquisition of land already exists it may be exercised by means of a compulsory purchase order.
Some local authorities, and in particular the Dublin Corporation, have been faced with the problem of what to do when they wish to acquire land compulsorily for two or more purposes, where the compulsory acquisition procedure for one of those purposes is by provisional order and for the other of those purposes by compulsory purchase order. In such cases the Bill provides that compulsory purchase procedure should apply.
Apart from the legal difficulty in regard to acquisition for multiple purposes involving two different procedures, it is generally desirable that in matters of administrative procedure, uniformity and simplicity should replace diversity and complexity. There are no good reasons why two procedures should exist side by side for purposes which are of equal public importance. Land required for a dispensary may be acquired by compulsory purchase order, while land for a reservoir or fire station or a bridge must be acquired by provisional order. Land for offices for staff engaged on health services may be acquired by compulsory purchase order, while a site for offices for, say, engineers engaged on road works, would have to be acquired by provisional order in default of agreement.
In view of the considerations favouring the adoption of a single procedure, the Bill proposes that compulsory purchase order procedure should apply generally.
Provisional order procedure is more cumbersome, and involves everybody concerned in more procedural steps than are really necessary for the proper consideration and protection of all the interests involved.
It involves public advertisement of the proposal, service of notice, in a succeeding month on all affected interests, a petition to the Minister, a public inquiry by the Minister, unless all served with notice have signified assent to the local authority's proposal, public notice by the Minister before making the provisional order, followed by advertisement of that order by the local authority, with five weeks allowed for appeals, either to the Minister or the Circuit Court. Finally the Minister must give further public notice before proceeding to confirm the provisional order.
Compulsory purchase order procedure involves the making of a compulsory purchase order by the local authority concerned, advertisement and invitation of objections, public local inquiry, ordered by the Minister, to consider any valid objections received, and rejection or confirmation of the order by the Minister after considering the report of the inquiry. Any person aggrieved by the confirmation of an order may appeal to the High Court on a point of law.
The substitution of compulsory purchase orders for provisional orders will not therefore weigh the scales against property owners and in favour of local authorities. It will merely enable the issues to be sorted out, dealt with and decided as speedily as may be consistent with equitable treatment for all concerned.
The remaining provisions of the Bill are of a minor nature. Section 11 of the Bill will clarify the position in relation to land acquisition for office purposes. Section 12 confers certain ancillary powers where one local authority performs functions on behalf of another. Section 13 confers a power of entry on land to determine its suitability for a particular purpose of the local authority, prior to initiating arrangements for acquisition. It contains due safeguards for the owners, including compensation for any damage that may be caused. Section 14 will enable county councils to increase their contributions towards the expenses of the County Councils General Council, if they wish to do so.
Senators will have seen, from what I have stated, that the Bill is almost wholly procedural, or technical; it is directed towards the machinery, rather than the substance of local government. I have no doubt that, with the help of the Bill, this machinery will function with greater smoothness, and that the Bill will facilitate local authorities in the discharge of their business. I therefore commend the Bill to the House.