Danny Healy-Rae: CPOs Ignored Kerry Landowners' Rights
Danny Healy-Rae challenges the use of Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) in Kerry, saying land was taken without agreed compensation and local routes were not decided by councillors. He recounts a local case where a route cut through a man's only soilage field and says property owners must be treated with respect.
Danny Healy-Rae sets out why he believes the CPO was applied prematurely in 2015, despite only six or seven landowners remaining. He argues there was scope to reach voluntary agreements before compulsory acquisition and that landowners still do not know what they will receive.
He highlights a case where a landowner refused payment and remains exposed, with cyclists and walkers using the land and online commentary exposing the owner’s yard. He insists landowners should be offered clear agreements and screening during works.
Healy-Rae stresses that voluntary agreements are possible at each step of the CPO process and that arbitration exists where transactions stall. He also disputes claims that local councillors decided specific greenway routes, saying councillors only voted on whether to allow CPOs.
Using a personal example from his time as a county councillor, Healy-Rae tells of a man whose single field was bisected by the route. He warns that such decisions leave a sour taste in families and insists that people’s property must be handled with respect and clear agreement.
Summary of the complaint
Danny Healy-Rae sets out why he believes the CPO was applied prematurely in 2015, despite only six or seven landowners remaining. He argues there was scope to reach voluntary agreements before compulsory acquisition and that landowners still do not know what they will receive.
Concerns about payment and privacy
He highlights a case where a landowner refused payment and remains exposed, with cyclists and walkers using the land and online commentary exposing the owner’s yard. He insists landowners should be offered clear agreements and screening during works.
Process, arbitration and local decision-making
Healy-Rae stresses that voluntary agreements are possible at each step of the CPO process and that arbitration exists where transactions stall. He also disputes claims that local councillors decided specific greenway routes, saying councillors only voted on whether to allow CPOs.
Personal impact and call for respect
Using a personal example from his time as a county councillor, Healy-Rae tells of a man whose single field was bisected by the route. He warns that such decisions leave a sour taste in families and insists that people’s property must be handled with respect and clear agreement.
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Transcript
We get the opportunity again here today to raise the issue. First of all, he said the CPO should be a last resort. That didn't happen, Kerry. I can tell you that. Because there were only six or seven landowners outstanding after Christmas 2015 and he still decided to go ahead with the CPO and notwithstanding the fact that six or seven were only outstanding and it could have been more true. But anyway, that didn't happen. And I'm asking, when he decides and he has a CPO and he wants to take this man's land from here to here, before he goes into it, can he not sign a contract and agree what the man is going to get or the woman and what he is taking and the accommodation most? I mean, we have a scenario down there now where there's cyclists and walkers going through it. We wish them the best. But the landowner decided that he shouldn't be paid. And the landowner isn't screened off. And there's people writing about him on Facebook and giving out that his yard is this way and that way and that isn't right. I mean, how do you like it? Are they happy with the way it is going on that he's not paying the landowners for agreeing a payment? They don't know how much they're going to get yet. Well, I would like to reach agreement with the landowners at the earliest point possible in all of the projects. And I think what we've tried to show in the appendix to our opening statement is that throughout the various steps involved in the CPO process, there is an ability to reach a voluntary agreement at every one of those steps. Where you see instances where, let's say, a final transaction hasn't concluded, it's as a result of both parties not agreeing a final position. And he's still going ahead and working. But the arbitration process is available to bring that to a conclusion once both sides are willing to agree. You said that councillors should agree the route in the first way. You said it. That councillors would agree, would have the role of agreeing the route in the first place. That didn't happen in Kerry. All we were asked to vote on was whether there'd be a CPO of the land or not. That's all. And I was a county councillor at that time, and Johnny Ray was as well, and we voted against it. We were one of two of the eight. But we weren't asked nothing else. I can't comment on what happened in Kerry, Deputy, but what I said was that local authority members would approve the development plan, and the development plans would generally have an objective. Yeah, but that was only the notion of a greenway. An objective to provide a greenway from A to B. But we had no role in deciding, and I want to assure my friends here, we had no role in deciding the route of the greenway from Green Bay to Castleveen. No, I don't disagree with that. You said, Mr. O'Connor, that you'd skipped around someone that had a problem. Well, I had a man that time, and he had one soilage field, and he was offering that the councillor, whoever it was, could go at the top of his field or the bottom of the field. He had only the one field to cut the soilage. He went straight through the middle of it. That's what happened. The man is dead now, but his family are there, and they'll never forgive you for getting involved. That's the truth of it. And there's a sour taste in that family, and his neighbours, a quiet man, a nice man, and that's what happened, and that's wrong. You said that they skipped around. That didn't happen in Kerry, I can tell you that. And another thing that I want to remind you, when this railway was built, it generally followed the railway from Green Bay to Renard. It took two years to plan it and to build it. How many years? We were taught that the CPO would speed up the process in 2014 and early in 2015, and it's longer it has taken it. You must agree with people, and I have to say here inside to you, Chairman, people's property, whether it is a house or whether it is land, it is theirs, and they must be treated with respect. And if it was me, he wouldn't go through my one field, I can tell you that much. Thank you, Deputy Collins.