asked the Minister for Local Government why the sites at Ballycahill, Thurles, on the lands of the Molloy Estate, Farney Castle. Holycross, Thurles, were not taken over for the building of cottages.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Sites for Cottages in Thurles.
15.
When confirming the opposed portion of the Tipperary (N.R.) Compulsory Purchase (Labourers Acts) Order, 1956, sites numbers 11-16 at Ballycahill on the Molloy Estate were excluded from the order on the grounds that (a) the Irish Land Commission had initiated proceedings for the acquisition of the Molloy Estate prior to the making of the compulsory purchase order, (b) the Land Commission were in possession of the estate before I signed the confirmation order, (c) the acquisition of these sites would have seriously impaired the efficient division of the estate and (d) the Land Commission were prepared to sell alternative sites to the county council.
I understand that alternative sites in lieu of these in the Order were selected following discussions between officials of the Land Commission and the county council and that the Land Commission were informed in June 1958 that the council wished to acquire the alternative sites offered.
Discussions between officials of the Land Commission and the county council for alternative sites in lieu of those in the Order were in progress for some time before the confirmation Order was made. At no time in that period, though inquiries were made as to the position by the Inspector who held the Inquiry, did the council suggest that the alternative sites offered were not suitable. It is understood that council's engineer in fact reported that the alternative sites were suitable.
I may add that I saw only yesterday a Press report, dated the 28th March, of a discussion on this matter at a recent meeting of the county council. In view of remarks attributed to some of the speakers, I think it will to say, for the information of the Deputy and everybody else concerned, that neither I nor any officer of my Department had any knowledge of or interest in the uses to which the Land Commission proposed to devote the lands in question save that the Commission required the water supply and the particular sites in question to enable them to make an efficient division of the lands generally. Any suggestion that I had some ulterior motive in excluding these sites from the confirming Order is, of course, entirely without foundation.