asked the Minister for Local Government if he is aware of the hardship caused to persons whose property is being acquired compulsorily by Dublin Corporation for road widening and other purposes, because of a lack of communication and co-ordination between the City Valuer's Department and the Development Department; if he will investigate a case (details supplied) where delay on the part of one Corporation Department is causing difficulties for the person affected in his efforts to obtain an alternative industrial site from another Department; and if action will be taken to ensure co-ordination between all Corporation Departments in the interests of natural justice and municipal efficiency.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Dublin Corporation Compulsory Order.
31.
I have no information regarding this matter which involves the internal administration and executive procedures of the local authority and as such is the responsibility of the city manager.
Does the Minister consider it proper that as Minister for Local Government he should tolerate, as if it were a matter of no interest to him, a situation in which a person some years ago received a notice that it was the intention of the local authority compulsorily to acquire his premises and that the same local authority delayed negotiating fair compensation with that person, that the person, endeavouring to meet the wishes of the local authority to vacate the place so that road widening could take place, has been trying to negotiate with another section of the local authority to get alternative accommodation, but because these two units of the local authority are not co-operating, a private citizen is left to suffer untold hardship and loss, and industrial development is hampered? Is the Minister saying that he has no function now and that he did not have a function before the dissolution of the city council?
Lay a wreath on the place.
I am not aware that is the situation. It is a matter for the local authority, and if the Deputy had been taking an interest in the affairs of the local authority in the past couple of years he would know this.
Will the Minister, now that he has appointed his gauleiter in the City Hall, see to it that this type of injustice is brought to an end, because it now appears that the Minister can command anything he wishes to be done? I am bringing it to his notice so that——
The Commissioner is not there as my representative but as a representative of the citizens of Dublin due to dereliction of duty by the Labour and Fine Gael members of the city council.
Is there any redress then open to a private citizen who finds himself in a fix where a compulsory purchase order prevents him from developing premises to provide for industrial expansion and so forth and because at the same time the local authority prevent him from getting alternative premises and yet will not pay him compensation for that which they are taking from him?
He can exercise his vote on the 12th June.
There is provision for an appeal against a compulsory purchase order.
All these processes have been exhausted. It is a question of compensation.