Vol. 449 No. 6
57 Mr. Davern asked the Minister for Finance if he will extend the expired time limit for the old designated area as submitted by Clonmel Corporation, County Tipperary; and if his attention has been drawn to the necessity for urban renewal status in order to complete these areas. [4218/95]
A letter was received in my Department in November, 1994 in relation to an extension of the old urban renewal scheme for certain areas in Clonmel. These areas in Clonmel had been designated since May 1990. It is understood that no development had commenced on the three specific sites in question when the request for a deadline extension was first made to the Department of the Environment in September last year. This was despite the fact that it was well known that the deadline of the scheme was either 31 July 1994 or 31 December 1994 where a certificate had been received from the local authority before 23 February 1994 stating that 15 per cent of the cost of the development had been incurred before 26 January 1994. Given these facts, and also that Clonmel Corporation had agreed to the inclusion of new areas under the new urban renewal scheme in preference to the redesignation of these existing areas when the issues were discussed with the Department of the Environment last year, it is clear that there is no case for introducing legislation extending the deadline of the original urban renewal scheme for Clonmel. Such a deadline would in any event have to apply to all the old designated areas and could not be confined to Clonmel.
