In 1993 the Local Government (Dublin) Act was passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas and I spoke at length in this House during the debate on that legislation. There are a number of reasons that legislation was introduced, all of which were contained in the Act. However, one of the unspoken reasons for its enactment and the setting up of the three independent local authorities, or extra county councils in my opinion and that of the members of those three new councils, was to do with the stranglehold which City Hall was rightly perceived to have on the county as a whole.
In two of the new local authorities — South Dublin County Council and Fingal County Council — Dublin Corporation had significant interests in terms of land acquisition and major housing stock in the area. I have been a member of the local authority since 1985 and Ministers in the current Government were members of Dublin County Council with me during that period. We regularly pointed out the difficulties which we experienced as local authority members for areas such as Blanchardstown, Clondalkin and Tallaght. Although the people living in corporation houses were constituents of ours, they were totally disenfranchised because we and they had no representation at City Hall.
When the Local Government (Dublin) Act was passed in 1993, the county council was abolished and the three new councils were set up. Subsidiarity and devolution were the buzz words at that time in relation to the legislation. I did something which I think was unprecedented. We were in Government with the Labour Party when that Bill was enacted and I tabled an amendment to my own Government's Bill because I feared that the spirit and intent of the legislation would be frustrated by City Hall. Almost two years down the road I am absolutely convinced that that has happened.
The Third Schedule to the Act, which affects most directly the hold up in completing the independence of the three local authorities, states:
Part I of the Schedule makes arrangements to provide for the transfer of local authority dwellings and land acquired for housing owned by one of the principal authorities but located in the functional area of a different principal authority to the authority in whose functional area it is located.
I was very happy with that. However, I was somewhat frightened that it would not happen, which is why I proposed an amendment to the legislation.
What I feared has now come about. We are at the stage, as far as I know from the answer to a recent question to the manager of my local authority, where a mediator or conciliator has been appointed to try to resolve this situation. I believe it is always better to talk than to argue. However, it will not work unless the Minister of State or the Minister for the Environment insists on the transfer of what is left of the lands and houses of Dublin Corporation to the three new local authorities. Unless that happens, the strength of the three new local authorities will be lost.
Dublin Corporation and the new local authorities made submissions but somebody has to act as God and make a decision, which I am asking the Minister to do. The corporation says it acquired lands in the county in the 1960s and 1970s for the purpose of meeting its statutory needs and to facilitate the development of the new growth areas, as envisaged in the Myles Wright report. That formed part of its submission to the Minister and it stated that it was necessary to have a large land bank available which was capable of being serviced for housing development. It is my understanding that the corporation funded an amount of this land acquisition out of its own funds, but I know for a fact that it did not fund all of it. It purchased the land for public housing.
We have had occasion to discuss semi-State and private developers in the last number of years. If a private developer behaved in the way Dublin Corporation has the press would be screaming. We have had descriptions in the local authorities of speculative developers who come in and try to have land rezoned for housing. That is exactly what Dublin Corporation did. They purchased land in the 1960s and 1970s at agricultural values, some for a pittance. Prices were about £1,000 per acre or a very small amount. I have a schedule in front of me detailing land which has been disposed of. The value of lands disposed of by Dublin Corporation since this legislation was enacted is in excess of £11 million, and most of these lands are in my local authority ward.
Industrial lands in Ballycoolin were disposed of to Forfás, a semi-State body, for £1 million by Dublin Corporation. My local authority enhanced the value of those lands and the corporation sold them for £1 million. I could go through the list of town centre lands sold. We have just had a debate on education but lands which were reserved for a regional technical college for Blanchardstown have been sold by Dublin Corporation to the private developer who is building our town centre. That is disgraceful and should not be allowed.
That is the land side of the argument. My tally is that, in my area alone, £11 million has gone into the kitty of Dublin Corporation from the sale of lands. It has been speculated by members of my council that these transactions were to fund the building of the civic offices; if this is so, so be it.
What is more annoying and completely unacceptable to me is the fact that in excess of 2,000 corporation houses in my ward are now being left to fall into an unbelievable state of disrepair. Those houses were built 20 years ago and the corporation carried out only bare maintenance on them. I pay tribute to the local depots who have done the best they can under the most difficult circumstances. I invite the Minister to come and see these housing developments. Dublin Corporation has made very loud noises through its public relations people about the refurbishment of Darndale and Ballymun, and we paid tribute today to a former Minister who was responsible for those developments.
I have the same type of courtyard housing as Darndale in my area. The corporation did not request one penny from any Minister for the Environment to improve the lot of those people. People tell me that when they request ordinary maintenance they are told that, as the houses are to be transferred, no maintenance is being carried out on them. If the houses are ever transferred we will have a crisis on our hands. I have put down a motion asking my own council to seek separate funding from the Minister for the Environment to clear up the mess which Dublin Corporation has created in the three new local authorities, but particularly in the Blanchardstown-Clondalkin areas. The Minister and I know when Fianna Fáil was in Government we set up the first task force on crime in this country. It was in a Dublin Corporation built area in Clondalkin. The corporation has created mayhem; it is responsible for the most disastrous planning. Now it wants to keep coining in the rents and allocating the tenancies, in the main to people from outside the council areas, which should not be allowed.
The Minister for Justice has decided to intervene in the dispute with the Garda. It is now time for the Minister for the Environment to call in Dublin Corporation and tell the city manager, who up to 1 January 1994 was the city and county manager — I would put a question mark over how he did his job as a county manager — that the Department knows what has been going on and that it understands the problems the corporation is worried about. The corporation has decided that it will develop the inner city; it will no longer put its tenants into the county. Therefore the land and housing must be transferred before any more damage is done.
