asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will place the plans and drawings, stated in the Siemens-Schuckert proposal for the development of the Shannon as having been handed to the Executive Council in separate portfolios, in some place where they may be inspected, subject to his control and supervision, by persons desirous of doing so.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - PLANS AND DRAWINGS OF THE SHANNON SCHEME.
This suggestion is not practicable. There is only one set of these plans which is in use in my Department, and others concerned in the works.
Will it not be impossible for anybody to criticise this scheme when it comes up, because engineers must see the plans before they can form any idea, and it is only engineers can lay the foundation of criticism in this matter?
I think a certain amount of information is desirable to have a scheme properly criticised. I hold that an examination of the abridged report of the scheme will give engineers sufficient details for them to found any criticism on.
Is it not the custom and the law in connection with a Private Bill dealing with a scheme like the Shannon Scheme, of which we have had several recently, that plans and specifications must be laid where they can be inspected not only by Deputies, but any member of the public?
It is the practice, and I presume the law also, for plans of a certain type, but the plans deposited in connection with the Liffey Bills, to which I presume the Deputy refers, are not at all of the detailed nature of the plans deposited by Siemens-Schuckert in connection with the larger scheme. These plans are at the moment being considered by the different Departments concerned—the Fisheries Department, the Board of Works, etc.—in order to get their opinion on the scheme.
Does not the Minister think that it is desirable in the case of persons likely to be affected, either in the areas concerned or elsewhere, to have an opportunity of giving some inspection to deposited plans—I do not say necessarily these plans, but deposited plans of the order and kind that are judged necessary in the case of Private Bills—and will he take steps to have such plans prepared and deposited in some place where they will be accessible for inspection?
I do not think, owing to the difference in the type of examination to which the schemes have been subjected, that there is the same necessity at all to have the plans in connection with the Shannon Scheme made public, and I do not intend, unless some better evidence be brought before me as to the desirability of doing so, to have further sets of these plans made and to have them open for inspection.
Is the Minister aware that persons in the areas likely to be affected have requested myself and others that such deposition should be made of plans that they may be able to discover, as they would be able to discover in the case of Private Bills, how far they are affected, where they are affected, and where possibly they may be prejudiced; and in view of that kind of information that is required, would he take means of letting that information be available by the deposition of some kind of plans somewhere?
I have mainly been made aware through the Deputy and some others that people have had fears as to their position being prejudiced, but as most of these people had their fears long before this scheme was published, in the degree to which it has been published, I cannot see that their fears have been based on anything real, and it is not my intention, until I get further proof of the desirability of the proceeding, to have duplicate plans prepared.
The Minister stated that these proposals have been examined by engineers, but they have not been examined by persons in the areas affected, and it is in regard to such persons, and engineers in this country, that I have desired and suggested that the plans should be deposited in the way that is required and is necessary to be done in the case of Private Bills.