Deputy Corry's amendment is ruled out of order because it is outside the scope of the Bill.
SECTION 3.
The following amendment stood in the name of Deputy Martin J. Corry :—
Before Section 3 to insert a new section as follows :—
(1) A road authority may make a contribution towards the cost of construction or improvement of an accommodation road, the construction or improvement of which is being undertaken by the Employment and Emergency Schemes Office as a rural improvement scheme, whether a declaration under Section 2 of this Act is, or is not, made in respect of such road.
(2) A contribution made by a road authority under sub-section (1) of this section shall be in lieu of and not in addition to the contribution which private persons were required to make before the passing of this Act.
Mr. Brennan
It is a pity, because there is a certain amount of good sense in it. I move amendment No. 6 for discussion:—
Before Section 3 to insert a new section as follows :—
Where a local authority makes a declaration under Section 2, it will be permissible for such local authority to levy off its funds the amount of the local contribution required from beneficiaries under any rural improvement scheme in connection with the road or roads the subject of the declaration.—(Deputy Beirne.)
I think a local authority already has that power.
Mr. O'Sullivan
They had it one time, anyhow. It worked for a couple of years here at one time. At any rate, in Cork County we had at one time such a thing.
In accepting the principle of the Bill, I was merely concerned with the proposition put to me to amend the law so as to give local bodies certain powers not enjoyed by them at the present time. I did not undertake to enter any commitment in accepting that principle as to how the making of the roads should be financed. It was made clear in the course of discussions that no such question would arise. While in a very technical sense Deputy Beirne's amendment may be different to Deputy Corry's, the meaning is the same. When a local authority makes a declaration under Section 2 making an accommodation road a county road, I doubt very much if the State could give a grant under the Rural Improvement Scheme because such a scheme is described as: " A scheme of grants towards the cost of constructing or improving accommodation roads, drains etc. for the joint benefit of groups of farmers." Even if you could get a grant the acceptance of it would in an indirect way impose a burden on the Exchequer. I did not think it was within the right of a Private Deputy to move an amendment that would have such an effect. A dozen arguments could be produced to show that it is not a type of amendment that would be expected to be introduced here. We are merely amending the law to give local bodies power to do certain things if they desire ; we are not providing means of doing it.
The only way as far as I know that you would get a contribution from the local authority is by having four or five people contributing and the local authority building a labourer's cottage.
Mr. Flynn
We had a case recently where local people applied for a rural improvement scheme. On that road there were two rural cottages. The county council made a contribution and it has been passed to the Department for sanction.
I always thought that, apart from the rural improvement scheme, once a local body erected a cottage a distance from a road, they were under an obligation to make that road within a few years.
Mr. Brennan
They do not do it.
They should be made to do it. They should never have built the cottage unless they were prepared to make the road to it.
There is a point arising out of the Minister's statement. Under this section, a Private Deputy's amendment, if accepted, would mean, the Minister says, an imposition on the Exchequer. As things stand, if this Bill goes through all its stages, you will have the position that in quite a number of areas where rural improvement schemes are carried out you will no longer have need of those schemes because the local authority will do that work and consequently the Exchequer it going to save a considerable amount of money on that expenditure.
I never think it a crime for a local body or the State to make a profit.
It means that there may be a saving to the central body but there will be an added expense on the local authority.
It may look like that from here but I question that the State is going to benefit very greatly.
Mr. Brennan
There are very many local authority roads being improved by minor employment grants year after year and those will no longer be a liability on that office.
If a council takes over a percentage of the estimated 20,000 miles of roads in the country it will merely mean a diversion of the moneys now provided for a limited section of these roads to the very large section that still remain.
Some of these roads will be taken over gradually by the local authority. All these accommodation and cul-de-sac roads will not be taken over in any one year. These roads would be entitled to a contribution from the rural improvements schemes, but the Office of Public Works might quite possibly say why give a grant now since these roads will be taken over next year by the local authority.
They cannot refuse you.
Having discussed the amendment now, would Deputy Brennan withdraw it?
I think, as Deputy Corry is not here, it would be only fair to give you the ideas behind his amendment.
We cannot discuss it. It is out of order.
Yes, but I am speaking to amendment No. 6. In a particular road in Deputy Corry's area £800 or £900 was offered by the Department and about £600 was put up by the local authority, but the county surveyor stated that, in order to put it in such condition to enable the council to declare it a public road, £2,400 would be the cost. The difficulty was that, since they would not be able to get more from the local authority and could not get more from the central authority, they could not get the road made a public road. The difficulty was the fact of not being able to get the money at the start.
The whole scheme will do a considerable amount of good, but unless the councils act carefully, it will impose a terrific liability on the rates. I suppose we will have to trust the councils on that issue.
Mr. O'Sullivan
We cannot provide against that here.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Section 3 agreed to.
Title agreed to.
Mr. Flynn
We have one or two cases at least in our district where, under the provisions of the Land Purchase Acts, tenants living midway on an accommodation road were given the right to erect a gateway. When they were carrying through the employment schemes over the year the farmer resident in the centre of this accommodation road prevented the work going through. He had his gateway and barrier across the road as per his agreement under the Land Purchase Acts. I think that is a legal point that should be clarified at some stage. Looking at Deputy Sweetman's amendment here, I had thought that it would be appropriate for me to raise the matter during the discussion on that.
All these have been decided already.
Mr. Flynn
I was addressing my remarks to——
I should not have allowed you to make this statement at all. The suggested report of the Committee is:—The Special Committee has gone through the Bill and has not made any amendment thereunto. The Bill is reported to the Dáil without amendment.
Report agreed to.
Will the Report Stage be taken in the Dáil?
Where a council is about to take over a road, Section 25 of the 1925 Act provides that notice will be given in two local papers in advance of the decision to declare a road a public road. I think that that should be carried into the new section. It is only fair that if Cork or Cavan or Roscommon County Council mean to take over a road in a particular place they should give notice by public advertisement a month in advance of the time they intend to do so.
Mr. Flynn
My point is that the authorities are slow to make a declaration because this man has his legal rights. Incidentally, he is a supporter of Deputy Palmer's. He prevented us carrying through a scheme last year and our engineer had to do the work above and below where that man was residing.
That is a separate matter entirely.
I would like to have the approval of the Committee to a continuation in this Bill of the provision about public notice prior to the taking over of a road by a public authority. It is only right that rate-payers should be notified of the intention of their council to take over any road.
I propose that.
The Committee rose at 12 noon.