asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health if he will state (1) the date upon which the clearance order in respect of the 104 recently occupied houses in Listowel was made by the Listowel Urban Council; (2) the date upon which the Local Government inquiry into the clearance order was held; (3) the date upon which the clearance order was signed by the Minister, and (4) the date upon which the engineer's final certificate was given in respect of the houses; if he will state the reason for the delay which occured between the making of the clearance order by the urban council, and the date of the Minister's ratification; and if he will state the date upon which the engineer's final certificate in respect of them was issued.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Listowel Clearance Order.
The replies are as follows:—(1) 18th September, 1934; (2) 15th January, 1935, to 22nd January, 1935; (3) 19 September, 1935; (4) 3rd May, 1937. No avoidable delay occurred in my Department between the making of the clearance order and the confirmation thereof. The confirmation order was not issued owing to the legal proceedings in connection with the constitution of the council. The engineer's final certificate was given on 3rd May, 1937.
Will the Minister explain why the legal proceedings held up the action of the Department in this particular matter, seeing that his Department had, it was alleged, no doubt as to the legality of the position. May I call his attention to the fact that he has attributed the delay of three years exclusively to local causes—at least that is the implication in his speech at Listowel.
I think there is no doubt how the delay occured. The confirmation order was held up owing to the question of the legality of the council—the question of the council's work—having been raised in the courts.
When was that made legal by the Dáil? My point is this: the Minister signed the order in September, 1935. At that date was the legality of the council established by the courts? Was not the question still before the courts? Therefore, I suggest to the Minister that the question of the legality of the council's position cannot be adduced as the reason for the delay.
That and the secondary question that was raised— the council challenging the loans.
May I ask the Minister to direct his attention to this: that that question was not decided before the Minister appended his signature; and that, therefore, that cannot be adduced as the reason of the delay, because, if so, it would have delayed the Minister's signature much longer.
The two questions were closely allied, as the Deputy knows—the question of the legality of the council and, therefore, arising out of that, the question of the loans. These two were closely allied, and the question of the loans, if you like, was subsidiary to the other question, but it was an important issue and it had to be decided by the court.
And the Minister acted before there was a decision by the court. Perhaps it might be well to point out that the Minister took the occasion of that reception for him, or rather that funeral march, at Listowel, to make certain charges against the local people.
I did not make charges against the local people, but against certain members of the local council, and they were charges that were well founded. With regard to that occasion, I hope that when the Deputy visits Listowel, he will get as good a reception as I got.
Well, all I can say is that if that kind of reception is sufficient to satisfy the present Government, they have fallen very low in their aspirations.