Harbours and Piers
Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-24
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Mark Duffy (FG), Labour Panel

I thank the Minister of State again for his reply. His commitment to meet the family is greatly appreciated.
To follow up on Senator O’Donovan’s point, the investment in piers and in repairs to piers, slipways and harbours is welcome. It can be more. On the specific aspect of maintenance, the resources supplied by local authorities is something we need greater understanding of. We need safety audits and assessments in respect of all our piers, harbours and slipways. We need to find out the cost of making them safe and of their ongoing maintenance. If we can understand this through communication with the chief executives of the local authorities, then we can all campaign to support better funding for the Minister of State’s Department to support local authorities. It could be done through that Department or through the Department of local government, led by the Minister, Deputy James Browne. At the moment, though, the maintenance of this infrastructure is not up to scratch. Whether at this level or at local authority level, we need to have a greater intensity in addressing this important matter.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-03-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:46+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-24