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CORRESPONDENCE
re: Land Commission Sub-division Applications
P. O'Donnell, Esq., T.D.,
President,
The Incorporated Law Society of Ireland,
Leckbeg,
Burtonport,
Letterkenny,
Co. Donegal.
Dear President,
I refer to the recent interview with you and
Mr. Plunkett, Secretary of the Incorporated Law
Society, in connection with the condition as to
planning permission in Land Commission letters
of consent to sub-division. I regret that due to
pressure of work I could not communicate with
you before now.
Since your interview, I have had the matter
fully examined by the Land Commission. We
took the view here that it was necessary to impose
the existing condition for the protection of pur–
chasers who might assume that because they got
permission from one Government Department an–
other State Department would
automatically
sanction their plans. You will apprediate that
their Sub-division Application Forms specify the
purpose of the sub-division and their proposed
use of the sub-divided lands.
We also have the view, which we still .hold,
that if planning permission is refused in certain
instances it will create a problem for the Land
Commission. If, for instance, sub-division permis–
sion is granted for an area of ten or twelve acres
for, say, a caravan site, and the planning authority
refuse planning permission,
the developer wil'
obviously sell
these
lands. They may well be
purchased by an individual who will claim he is
an uneconomic landholder and be back again
with us looking for extra land or migration. You
will therefore appreciate that this whole matter is
not at all simple from our point of view.
I have, however, given very careful considera–
tion to the points made by both yourself and Mr.
Plunkett and appreciate that under the existing
ruling difficulties are arising with your profession
in certain cases. I am accordingly authorising a
change in our procedures so that the letter of
consent will merely contain a warning clause
specifying that the consent will not imply that
planning permission will be forthcoming for any
development of the lands in question.
Because of the implications for my Department
for the reasons set out above, I have taken this
decision with some misgivings. I am accordingly
only authorising
this change for a period of
twenve months when I will review the situation
in the light of the experience gained.
Le fior mheas,
Micheal O Morain.
Minister for Lands.
25 Bealtaine 1967.
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