asked the Minister for Local Government the amount of undeveloped land owned by Dublin Corporation.
29.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Dublin Corporation Undeveloped Land.
28.
asked the Minister for Local Government if he will give details of the financial returns accruing to Dublin Corporation from the undeveloped land in its possession.
I propose, with your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, to take Questions Nos. 28 and 29 together.
Information is not available in my Department regarding the total amount of undeveloped land owned by Dublin Corporation nor have I details of the financial returns accruing to them from such land. For the purposes of their housing programme, the corporation had in their possession, at the 31st January, 1970, sites for some 13,932 dwellings. Development work had been carried out, or was in progress on that date on 5,449 of these sites.
Since the Minister has to receive four days notice of a question and since there are no locally elected representatives for Dublin city I would expect that, when a Deputy requests information from the Minister, the Minister would at least go to the trouble, or get some of his officials to go to the trouble, of providing the answer; or is this a further example of the Minister's policy of refusing to answer questions in this House to his Department?
My Department have not taken over the functions of Dublin Corporation.
Only the Minister's officials.
The fact is that there is no local authority.
Has the Deputy got a question to ask? The Deputy must put a question.
The Minister has appointed one man, a commissioner, who was secretary of the Minister's Department at one stage, to run the affairs of this city. If a Deputy seeks information, which it is within the province of the Minister's Department to supply, surely the Minister should give that information to the House and desist from the policy he has adopted of avoiding where possible answering questions in this House, thereby depriving the people of this city of the information sought?
I certainly will answer any question that comes within the province of my Department, as the Deputy suggested.
Would the Minister say how this information can be got if he is unable or unwilling to provide it?
It can be got from Dublin Corporation.
Who can get this information?
Any public representative.
A TD?
The Deputy can inquire and I am sure the local authority will give the information that is available.
There is no public representative in Dublin Corporation at the moment.
The majority of the members abolished themselves and their colleagues.
Nobody abolished them selves. The Minister abolished them.
They abolished themselves.
Would the Minister not agree that, unless he issued instructions to the contrary, one of the officials of his Department could have solicited this information in order to allow the Minister to answer the question?
A telephone call would have got it.
The officials of my Department are not responsible for this at all. This is a matter for Dublin Corporation, the local authority.
Is the House aware that this is a dangerous precedent? Questions are set down here by Deputies to Ministers, questions easy to answer so far as the Minister's Department is concerned——
We cannot have a debate on those questions.
——such as the question set down by Deputy Cluskey. Surely the Minister will agree that he is paid a big sum of money from public funds to carry out his obligations as Minister? One of those obligations is to answer questions and to give information.
We cannot have a speech on this.
I agree there is a danger of a precedent being set here and I do not intend to set it. I do not intend to set the precedent of purporting to do the work of every local authority in the country.
(Cavan): Surely the Minister will agree that questions of this nature addressed to him in respect of many other local authorities have been answered by him in this House from time to time?
Any information available in my Department will be given to the House. This information is not available.
If a Fianna Fáil Deputy asked that question it would be answered.
(Cavan): Am I right in thinking that in respect of the very last question which I asked in respect of Louth County Council the information sought was not available but the Minister was kind enough to tell me he will get the information from the Louth County Council and give it to me? What is the difference now?
As the Deputy has said, that is due to my kindness.
One would be prepared to tolerate the Minister's ignorance in this regard if it were not for the fact that it deprives constituents of legitimate information which the Minister has responsibility to give to this House.
The Deputy must put a question. We cannot have a speech at this stage.
This information is not available in my Department. The question which Deputy T.J. Fitzpatrick (Cavan) asked seemed to be one about which it was appropriate that we should try to get the information.
I can raise it on the Adjournment. I request permission to raise it on the Adjournment in view of the unsatisfactory reply from the Minister.