Vol. 399 No. 5
8 Mr. Kenny asked the Minister for the Environment if he will make a statement on the provision of an inner relief road in Castlebar, County Mayo; if he has taken into account the views of the Community of the Sisters of Mercy in Castlebar concerning the acquisition of the area known as The Lawn in his confirmation of a compulsory purchase order recently; and arising from their resistance to his proposal, if he will defer the project pending a review of the entire proceedings.
43 Mr. J. Higgins asked the Minister for the Environment if, in light of the strong and valid local reservations on the proposed inner relief road system for Castlebar, County Mayo, he will instruct Mayo County Council to defer work on the project pending a re-examination of the merits of alternative proposals; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 8 and 43 together.
On 3 April 1990, I confirmed, subject to minor modifications, a compulsory purchase order made by the local authority for this scheme. In determining the order I took into consideration the objections made against the order, the evidence presented at the public local inquiry and the report of the person who held the inquiry. My decision was based on these matters only. The administration of a duly confirmed compulsory purchase order is a matter for the local authority concerned, in this case Mayo County Council. I do not propose to instruct the council to re-examine the merits of alternative proposals or to delay the project by a further review of proceedings.
Is the Minister aware that this proposal will not only split the town of Castlebar physically but has caused considerable agitation among members of the local community? The Minister for Energy, Deputy Molloy, the Minister of State, Deputy Harney, and others have visited Castlebar to view the situation there. The Minister, as a local representative, has already acted in a judicial role by confirming the compulsory purchase order arising from the public sworn inquiry. May I ask the Minister if he is absolutely satisfied, both as a local representative and as a Minister acting judicially, that he has acted objectively by taking into account the statements, facts and evidence given at the public sworn inquiry?
I am quite satisfied that the Minister has acted correctly in this matter. I made and based my decision on the evidence given at the public oral inquiry where everybody and every organisation got an opportunity to state their case. The scheme proposed by the National Roads Authority which was discussed during the oral inquiry is the best scheme and is the one which will now proceed.
May I ask the Minister if he has had any meetings with the groups who wish to protect the area know as The Lawn? Is the Minister satisfied that the proposed route, which will cause environmental damage and pass close to a campus where there are 2,000 students, will not interfere unduly in the quality of life of people, will not cause noise pollution and will not be a constant traffic hazard? Will the Minister confirm whether he is satisfied, arising from the CPO and public sworn inquiry, that it will not cause any of these problems?
The evidence given at the sworn inquiry so confirms.
I now call on Deputy——
May I ask the Minister——
Order, please, Deputy Kenny. I want to bring in Deputy Jim Higgins.
This is a very serious matter.
I want to call on Deputy Jim Higgins whose Question No. 43 refers to the same subject matter.
I want to ask the Minister——
No, Deputy, I am calling Deputy Jim Higgins. I will call the Deputy again.
This is all the proof we need that it will be a five seater constituency.
It is co-operation at the highest level in the backbenches. Even though this is the year of the Green Presidency, the Minister for the Environment is presiding over the Council of European Ministers for the Environment and it is an era of "sloganeering" very much in terms of the environment, the Minister in his native town of Castlebar has perpetrated and is standing over an act of planning vandalism——
Ceist.
——which, as Deputy Kenny has said, brings not an inner relief road but a national primary road within striking distance of Davitt College which has 600 students and St. Anthony's School which has 200 mentally handicapped students——
I have to dissuade the Deputy from making a speech. This is question time, Deputy Higgins.
Does the Minister not agree that by bringing a national primary road so close to the schools one is introducing a high level of noise pollution, a high level of air pollution, the danger of accidents, the despoilation of the green——
I think the Deputy has made his point. Obviously he is embarking on a speech.
May I put the point to the Minister——
The Deputy has made his point adequately and eloquently.
As a person who has normally prided himself in having a fair degree of common sense and rationale and having——
I must ask the Deputy to desist. This has gone too far for Question Time.
I will conclude——
No, the Minister must now be afforded the opportunity of replying.
The same as I am allowed to ask a supplementary.
I am interested in hearing whether the Minister thinks he has any common sense.
I have to point out to the Deputy Higgins that the road deisgn was the one put forward by the authority of which he is a member. It is also the design put forward and referred by the authority of which Deputy Kenny is a member.
It was voted down because the Taoiseach's house would have been knocked.
I am pleased to put it on the record here that those two good Deputies from County Mayo supported their authority in this matter.
That is wrong.
This subsequently was a matter for an oral public sworn inquiry at which the due processes of the law were complied with. It would be both morally and administratively wrong for the Minister to do other than he did in confirming the order following the evidence given at the oral inquiry.
I am quite sure the Minister is not deliberately misleading the House. As the Minister is well aware, the report on the first stage of the road was sub judice when it came before Mayo County Council. The councillors interested in that section of the road were not allowed, under a legal restriction, to voice their opinions——
Ceist, le do thoil, a Theachta.
It is fair to say that councillors gave their support to the second stage——
I am still awaiting a question.
May I ask the Minister——
It is most unlikely that the sub judice rule ever stopped the members of Mayo County Council from commenting on anything.
The Minister should speak for himself.
As the Minister is well aware, the members of Mayo County Council were restricted, on legal advice, from making any comment on the matter because it was sub judice. Therefore, we could not comment on the first section of the road. May I ask the Minister, who prides himself both on his pragmatism and imagination, if he will now instruct the council to postpone work until such time as an independent survey can back up the objectivity of the Minister's assessment of the public sworn inquiry into the matter?
No, I will not do so. If the objectors, the council, individuals or anybody else thought fit to challenge the Minister's signature on the compulsory purchase order in court the opportunity was available to them to do so but they did not. It is not now proper, post factum, to have manipulation of this kind.
The Minister is correct in saying——
I want to bring in Deputy Higgins again. Deputy Garland is also offering. I then want to proceed to another question.
Will you not call me again, a Cheann Comhairle?
Other questions are important also, Deputy. We must not forget that.
Despite the advice he has received from his departmental officials and the county council engineering staff of Mayo County Council, does the Minister not accept that there must be something seriously wrong when the combined population of Castlebar are opposed to this road being built? Last Monday the nuns, priests and brothers in Castlebar collectively decided that they wanted to voice their objections to this road in no uncertain manner. Does the Minister, who is normally cast in the role of Henry VIII, the Fidei Defensor, not find it strange to be striking down all these objections on a very cursory and flimsy set of legalistic and official arguments?
I want to correct the Deputy on one very important point. The Minister took no advice whatsoever——
That is very obvious.
——from the officials of his Department in this matter. The Minister acts in a quasi-judicial fashion when dealing with CPOs of this kind. I am restricted from seeking advice from anybody and I had to make my decision on the evidence before me in the transcript of the oral hearing. I have read every page of this transcript and I am satisfied that the inspector's recommendation was proper. It would be improper for me to do anything other than I did. I should also like to point out that it is misleading for Deputy Higgins to suggest that the majority of the people of Castlebar wish something other than what the Minister has done.
That remains to be seen.
I am calling Deputy Garland.
The Deputy will never have to answer for it anyway; we will keep him over in East Mayo.
Am I right in saying that the Minister owns two shops in Chapel Street which he has had difficulty in letting and that these are within 100 yards of the proposed motorway? Will the Minister confirm that these shops will increase in value as a result of these plans?
I do not know what Deputy Garland is talking about. I understand the Deputy took one of his flying visits to my home town in the recent past. The question by Deputy Garland has nothing to do with the questions asked by the other two Deputies.
It has a lot to do with them.
It has nothing.
Let us proceed to Question No. 9.
The Minister did not answer my question.
I have one further question to ask.
It must be a very brief question as I have allowed a lot of latitude on this question. I think the Deputies will agree with me and the House knows I have allowed a lot of latitude.
I have been here a number of years and you have not had to order me out yet.
The Deputy should not tempt me.
It will be the widest road in Ireland.
Is the Minister satisfied that this proposed road will relieve the traffic congestion in Castlebar? Can the Minister advise me, from the wealth of knowledge he has stored up over there and from all the reading he has done on this matter, whether there is now any legal redress open to the community and those concerned, both for the safety of their children and for the environment?
The matters the Deputy referred to were considered at the oral inquiry and all matters were cleared to mine and the inspector's satisfaction. Regardless of whether the Deputy is aware of it, work commenced on this stretch of road in the recent past.
