asked the Minister for Local Government if he will state if the Monaghan County Council have purchased lands at Cloughvalley,Carrickmacross, for a proposed housing scheme, and, if so, if he will indicate the cost of the land, the number of houses to be built and the total cost of the scheme.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - County Monaghan Housing.
Negotiations have not yet been completed by the Monaghan County Council for the purchase of about 37 acres of land at Cloughvalley, Carrickmacross, for housing purposes. The site would be capable of accommodating some 200 houses ultimately. No information as to the probable cost of building houses on the site is available at this stage.
Is the Minister aware that the vocational committee purchased a site on these lands some four years ago and were prevented from developing the site by the county manager who said the county council was carrying out a housing scheme? Seeing that the matter has not yet been decided, would the Minister now instruct the county manager to compensate the vocational committee which has to purchase an alternative site?
I do not know to what extent I can intervene in a question of that nature as between two local bodies, such as the Monaghan County Council and the Monaghan Vocational Education Committee. I would imagine that if the county council has interfered with any property of the vocational committee in any way it should be possible for these two bodies to settle the question as between themselves.
In view of the fact that the lands have not been purchased and, as far as is known locally, there is no expectation of their being purchased in the near future that site is now lying idle. The vocational committee had to abandon it. I think if the Minister were to instruct the county manager to compensate the vocational committee it would have some effect.
It is not my function as far as I am aware to instruct the county manager to compensate the vocational education committee, nor, indeed, any other committee. I take it the vocational education committeehas its rights. If that committee owns property on which it intended to develop a vocational school and if that property has been taken from the committee by another body, I take it the committee has the same rights as any ordinary citizen or group of citizens. In the event of the committee being unable to secure what it regards as fair and equitable from the county council, the committee I imagine has available to it the means of exercising its rights. To suggest that the Minister for Local Government could come along and instruct the county council or its manager to pay compensation to this particular interest would be extending the Minister's power very considerably indeed.