Sir, – John Thompson suggests that compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) of land could be unconstitutional, despite accepting that the “State indeed has the right to compulsorily purchase private property, at fair market value” (Letters, November 22nd).
He argues that “that the property needs to be specifically essential in satisfying a particular public need” and that a CPO for housing cannot meet that constitutional standard.
However, there is no such detailed standard set out in the Constitution, which simply states that “the State accordingly may as occasion requires delimit by law the exercise of the said rights (private property rights) with a view to reconciling their exercise with the exigencies of the common good”. Indeed a detailed review by the Irish Council for Human Rights concluded that the Kenny recommendations were not unconstitutional.
There may indeed be a requirement for primary legislation to put these recommendations into practice but there seems to be no absolute constitutional barrier. – Yours, etc,
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DONAL McGRATH,
Greystones,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – While the Kenny Report did consider the compulsory purchase of land zoned for house building at agricultural value plus 25 per cent, this was not, as suggested by a previous correspondent, proposed in the final report.
As John Thompson points out, this would not have been in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, although not for the reasons given.
The fact that a particular area of land has been zoned for housing by a planning authority does undermine his argument that “one location is pretty much as good as another”.
The Kenny Report did not, as Mr Thompson states, make any recommendations that services should be built out “over a wide area” as the sole remit of the report was in relation to the cost of building land.
What was actually proposed by the Kenny Report was that land that was zoned for housing and was serviced (or about to be serviced) by public investment in infrastructure could be compulsorily purchased for housing by the local authority at current use value plus 25 per cent.
This was on the basis of what was termed “betterment”,
As the increased value of the land was due to public investment in infrastructure (unlike the case for land that was just zoned), the exigencies of the common good provided for in the Constitution would allow that land to be purchased compulsorily at current value plus 25 per cent.
This has never been implemented, despite the extensive legal arguments contained within the Kenny Report showing that the proposal is consistent with the Constitution.
The main reason for this inertia was the effective lobbying over many decades of the property owners and the developers. – Yours, etc,
ADRIAN CONWAY,
Kilcloon,
Co Meath.