History of the Kenny Report
Jul 2nd, 2008 by Donagh
I don’t know when, but I believe that Conor in some of his posts on the Property market in Ireland has made a couple of mentions of the Kenny Report, which “advocated that just slightly more than the agricultural value of land would be awarded in compensation to landholders whose land was deemed appropriate for the building of houses”. It was written in 1973 and submitted to Cabinet in that year but was never acted upon.
As a result the price of land in Ireland has been completely controlled by speculation, leading its price to be determined by a market, which could be controlled (and profited on) by a relatively small number of people.
As it happens you can’t get your hands on the Kenny Report at the moment. Conor has read it but only because it’s available in the National Library. It’s currently out of print and there are no plans to reprint it.
Today Vincent Browne’s column (no sub req) tackles The Labour Party, and argues that instead of seeking office they should focus on the inequalities in Irish society, because, he argues, while they have been in office they did nothing at all to address these inequalities. So what was the point of being in power (or at least seated next to power at the Cabinet table)?
I tend to agree with him. It’s the same with the Green party. If there seems to be no opportunity to actually influence decision making there is no point in being in Government. The only reason I can see is that it might provide media attention – for Government parties it is disproportionately high - to raise your profile as a party and hope that this will help you increase the number of TDs you get in the Dáil.
Historically, minority parties in Ireland do not influence majority partners (if they did they wouldn’t be there) and historically, being in government doesn’t increase votes for the party. But that’s obvious.
The reason for this post though is that Browne provides a little history around the Kenny Report and how it was received at Cabinet, which if true is very enlightening indeed. No broader point to make I’m afraid, I just thought it illustrated that we really do need a proper social democratic party in this country.
The Kenny report was submitted to cabinet, I assume by the minister for local government at the time, Jim Tully, who was a member of the Labour Party. The then minister for finance, Richie Ryan, said he was opposed to the implementation of the Kenny proposals. The taoiseach, Liam Cosgrave, said he too was opposed. And that was that. No objection was raised by the tánaiste and leader of the Labour Party, Brendan Corish, nor by a minister who was later a tánaiste, Michael O’Leary, nor by the socialist, Justin Keating, nor by Conor Cruise O’Brien, nor by Jimmy Tully himself. All remained silent, as did the other Fine Gael ministers. The Kenny report was shelved (this account of what happened at the cabinet was given to me by one of the Fine Gael ministers who was present).
UCD library has a copy of it, as does the Dublin City archive on Pearse St. Although known as the Kenny report (after its chairman, Justice , J. Kenny, the author is listed as:
Committee on the Price of Building Land,
and the name of the report is:
Report to the Minister for Local Government Robert Molloy, Chairman Mr. Justice J. Kenny (Dublin, 1974)
[…] part of his piece he makes a much better case for Labour rethinking its position when he notes, as Donagh has on Dublin Opinion, their complicity in Cabinet in the 1970s sitting on the Kenny Report on […]
The Kenny Report is now available to read and download. Just click on the link below.
http://dublinopinion.com/2009/05/15/committee-on-the-price-of-building-land-report-to-the-minister-for-local-government-robert-molloy-chairman-mr-justice-j-kenny-dublin1974/
Whatever about the wealthy owning the land, be it agricultural, suburban, industrial spaces. They also own 18th, 19th century houses, by the dozen. These are (or have been in the past) as Charles Dickens would say ‘cordoned down into little rooms, inhabitated by solicitors, like worms’ (or, also, the v. poor). Many of the smaller old houses are left decrepit and empty, perhaps because they are ‘assets’ to the owners, who in turn can access bank loans, and so expand their property portfolios. The amount of empty old ‘character’ houses now, is quite a lot. Could the local authorities acquire a few of the bigger ones, and renovate, in their original character (though to modern standards). Also, there is a real, real, problem now of tenant/tenant aggravation, (on estates) which, if there is any direct interaction, might be termed ‘nuisance’ or/and ‘confrontational’. Fear of what their landlords might think is a constant abnegation of a person’s freedom. Yet, the local authorities ‘don’t know who the landlords are’, the Valuations Office ‘don’t know who the landlords are’, the PRTB ‘don’t know who the landlords are’. Even auctioneers ‘don’t know who the landlords are’, in the next house. Is it time that, (as some time ago), the Local Authorities, had a public list of all of the owners of houses in their area ? And if not, why not ?
Divide and rule ?