Council motion needed for rezoning, inquiry told

The only way for a landowner to get land rezoned was to persuade local representatives to propose and second a motion at county council meetings, the tribunal has heard.

Ms Sinead Collins, a former administrative officer in Dublin County Council, said the council had a duty to consider every representation it received by showing it was noted. But usually such representations were just noted.

Representations that didn't have a motion attached weren't generally adopted. Unless a motion was submitted in relation to the representation, it didn't succeed, she said.

As part of its investigations into allegations of payments to councillors in relation to rezonings in the Carrickmines area of south Dublin, the tribunal continued its review yesterday of council decisions in the early 1990s.

A proposal by Senator Don Lydon and Cllr Tom Hand to rezone over 100 acres of land owned by Paisley Park at Carrickmines was defeated by 26 votes to 24 in 1992.

Mr Gallagher pointed out that the only councillors to speak in favour of the motion were the proposer and seconder, Senator Lydon and Cllr Hand. The other 22 councillors who supported the proposal did not speak on the matter.

Ms Collins recalled being part of a coach trip organised for councillors to view the various lands in the Carrickmines Valley.

About 40 councillors as well as a number of officials participated, although no-one actually walked the lands.

The tribunal heard that the line chosen for the proposed South-East motorway in the 1983 Draft Plan was abandoned for "technical reasons".

The line proposed in the 1991 Plan was to the south of the original line, but other lines were considered or proposed by councillors at various stages.

These more southerly lines would have benefitted landowners in the area as lands to the north of the motorway line were more likely to be rezoned than those to the south, which abutted the Dublin mountains.

The tribunal continues today.