301 / 736
appeal must
reach
the Department of Local
Government within the period of one month, be
ginning on the day on which you receive notifi
cation of the planning authority's decision. In the
same way, you can appeal within a month if the
planning authority have refused permission. The
letter of appeal should be addressed to the Minister
for Local Government, Custom House, Dublin, and
and should state your reasons for the appeal.
If the local authority decide to grant your per
mission, remember that other people can appeal
against that decision—for instance, a neighbour
may appeal on the grounds that the development
you propose would adversely affect his property.
Where such an appeal is made, it has to be deter
mined by the Minister and you cannot start work
unless and until the Minister decides to reject the
appeal and to grant the permission or approval
you have sought.
If there is no appeal against a decision to grant
permission, the actual grant of permission will be
issued by the planning authority as soon as possible
after the expiration of the appeal period, that is,
one month.
Until you receive this document, the
development is not authorised and work cannot be
commenced.
If you buy a house on an estate
If you are buying a house on an estate developed
by a building firm, planning permission will al
ready have been obtained by the developers and
you will not have to seek permission yourself.
Nevertheless, in your own interests, you should
find out the terms of the planning permission
granted and that adequate guarantees exist for the
satisfactory completion of the estate in accordance
with the plans. The problem of "unfinished" hous
ing estates has arisen partly because house-pur
chasers failed to satisfy themselves that the de
veloper was legally committed to complete the
development properly. While the Planning Act of
1963 conferred strong powers on planning auth
orities to see that housing estates are properly
completed in the future, you are still responsible
for satisfying yourself in advance that the estate
developer has assumed clear responsibility for the
proper completion of the estate and that he can, if
necessary, be forced to complete it.
If you want to reconstruct or extend your house
Reconstruction work is exempted from planning
control where it does not materially alter the ap
pearance of the house. The construction of a new
extension to the rear of a house is also free from
control, provided that the original floor area of
the house is not exceeded by more than 120 square
feet or, in the case of a two-storey extension, 90
square feet on each floor and that the height of the
house is not exceeded. Apart from these exemp
tions, the reconstruction or extension of a house
or any alteration which materially affects its ex
ternal appearance is likely to be subject to plan
ning control and permission must be obtained
before work is put in hand.
FEDERATION OF
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
The
following address was delivered by Mr.
Ercndan A. McGrath, solicitor, President of the
Federation, at the annual general meeting of the
Association which was held on the 30th April 1969
In a leading article in the
Irish Times
of the 14th
April, in. the course of criticising the doctors in
Killarney because of their alleged preoccupation
with "remuneration discussions", it was said that :
"Professional bodies are part of the country's elite.
They have enjoyed the benefit of a prolonged
education, which it might reasonably be thought,
would confer on them an extra-sensitive social
conscience", and the question was asked :
"How
conscious is our professional elite of the example
which it can and ought to provide?" My reply is
that the professions are alert to the new social
dimensions which emphasise
their functions as
social institutions which can and ought to make
an effective contribution, to the community wel
fare. The consciousness of this obligation was one
of the prime reasons for establishing the Feder
ation. The first object in its constitution reads :
"To promote and advance the contribution of
professional organisations to the welfare of the
community".
To give intellectual assent to a proposition is,
however, no guarantee of its achievement. I have
on other occasions stressed the necessity for each
of the professions to do an act of self-searching as
to the adequacy of their performance. It is well
to bear in mind that we can be lamentably poor
in seeing the broad social significance of our own
work. This may, perhaps, be attributable to the
old and narrow attitude which measured duty by
the interest of the individual to whom service was
rendered, and by that alone. There is, however, a
larger zone in which the professional must be seen
as the creator of values. Service of the public
interest is not merely mechanical, it is also creative.
Examples can be seen in the field of public health
22