asked the Minister for Local Government if he will consider having the by-law and health regulations which exist in County Dublin relaxed or modified to enable tenants of council cottages or people living on small holdings of land to obtain planning permission to members of their families who are anxious to build houses for themselves on the same holding.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - County Dublin Building By-Laws.
115.
I assume that the Deputy's question refers to difficulties arising out of Dublin County Council's building by-laws in so far as these lay down in the interests of public health, requirements for drainage of building sites which have not access to a public sewer. These by-laws were made by Dublin County Council in 1967 under the powers conferred by the Public Health Acts and duly confirmed. The administration and any alteration of them which might be considered necessary are matters for the county council in which I have no power to intervene.
Is the Minister aware that a previous city medical officer of health consistently turned down planning permission in cases which would include a method of sewage disposal that is acceptable in every other country in the EEC?
The only answer I can give to that is that if that is so then, of course, those who have made the application and have been refused have the right to appeal to the Minister for Local Government. I am not saying what his decision will be.
Would the Minister agree that having that right to appeal implies the right of the Minister to decide in favour of the appellant notwithstanding what the health people might have said about it?
Of course. But that does not mean he prejudices the issue now?
Not at all.
The Minister said that applicants have the right to appeal. My information is that there is no appeal on the by-laws.
Under the by-laws that is so, but the appeal Deputy Lemass referred to is against the refusal of planning permission because of the incorrect method of sewage disposal or the failure to have any method of sewage disposal. That is what Deputy Lemass was talking about. It is a different matter altogether. If Deputy Walsh wishes I shall read out the reply to his question again.
As far as I know, when planning applications are refused, say where there is no sewerage and where the application is for a septic tank, there is no appeal to the Department of Local Government in that case.
That is so, I am not claiming there is but if I were a member of Dublin County Council I would have a motion down asking to have those by-laws changed.
In the case of an appeal arising as a result of rejection on the grounds stated, the location of the septic tank, that matter would come by way of appeal surely to the Minister and would be considered by him under the Planning Acts and he would exercise his right on that appeal and the matter of where it emanated from or how it arose would not actually come into his dealing with it. Is that not correct?
There are two issues.
I know there are two but let us not confuse the issue. If and when an appeal arises on the basis of the application being rejected on the grounds of inadequate facilities for a septic tank, surely this matter is decided as an appeal by the Minister and he does not have a split personality in his approach to it as to whether it contravenes a by-law or whether it is good or bad planning because the overall concept of good planning must take these things into consideration and if he is satisfied, despite the local health authority's views, to uphold the appeal then I hold he is entitled to do so
Deputy Blaney is talking about an appeal against something which is laid down but if the decision is that while they refuse the planning permission for one or two stated reasons they also, on the side, say that it does not comply with the by-laws. There is no appeal against the by-laws which have been approved by the county council.
I quite agree but if the contravention of the by-laws is a matter of planning criteria such as the location of the septic tank, then the Minister for Local Government surely is entitled to decide on the merits of that particular case and if and when he does grant planning permission to that appellant, then it surely supercedes the objection raised, whether under bye-laws or otherwise, by the local authority?
If an appeal comes to the Department of Local Government on a specific case the Minister is entitled to deal with it. If, however, on a side issue the local authority decide there is a bye-law being contravened that is a different thing altogether.
That is two ways of looking at it.