I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Heather Humphreys. I am aware of the concerns expressed by the residents of Dursey, the farming community which has animals on the island and those that promote tourism in the region regarding the recent decision by Cork County Council to withdraw the existing cable car service to Dursey Island in order to carry out maintenance works. It is important to note that the provision, management and upkeep of the cable car is a matter for Cork County Council. It ow…

Unusual.

In the Minister's original response, it is clear that whether by cable car or by boat, Cork County Council has a responsibility to provide access to the island. It is not acceptable to just cut it. Cutting it without consultation is not acceptable. It is the statutory authority that is obliged under the law, which we passed in this House, to provide access to that island for those islanders and farmers. We as legislators are required to ensure that the local authority carries out those statutory responsibilities. W…

That is in the Minister's response to this as well.

I thank Deputy MacSharry for raising this issue. I am taking this Topical Issue matter on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin. I should clarify the respective roles of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and its agency Fáilte Ireland in respect of national tourism development. The Department's role lies primarily in the area of national tourism policy development and in securing resources to assist the tourism agencies in implementing that policy. In line with its touris…

The Deputy answered his last question himself. He asked what the Government's role is and if it relates to policy. I answered that question. The first sentence in my initial response was that the role of the Department relates primarily to policy. I am a former Minister of State in the Department with responsibility for tourism. The role of the Department is the formulation of policy and Fáilte Ireland's role is as a national vehicle for the implementation of policy. Tourism Ireland's role is as a vehicle for the d…

I visited Bantry following the recent flood events, including last month after the flooding of 28 properties during Storm Barra. I have seen at first hand the devastation that flooding has caused to homeowners, businesses and the wider Bantry community. The flood risk management plan launched in May 2018 included a recommendation to progress the design, planning and construction of a flood relief scheme for Bantry. A steering group, comprising representatives from the Office of Public Works, OPW, and Cork County Co…

There are two elements to this scheme. One concerns the culvert running through the centre of the town and the other is the flooding that happens from the harbour, which is part of the wider Bantry flood relief scheme. It is evident from meetings involving officials of Cork County Council and the OPW that the council is progressing the design of the culvert element via its own engineering section and consultative support. We will assist the council in that undertaking. Regarding the other element of the wider flood…

The Clonakilty scheme is completed and has been handed over to Cork County Council, while the schemes in Skibbereen and Bandon have more or less been completed as well. The true test of the pudding is in the eating, though. As someone who knows Bandon intimately, being able to say that the town did not flood during Storm Barra, and that my brother's pub did not flood, unlike in almost every previous flooding event, shows that the investment by the OPW, through Cork County Council, was a good undertaking in the cont…

The voluntary homeowners relocation scheme was introduced by the Government in 2017 to address the serious flooding of those properties that flooded in the winter of 2015 and 2016, including those properties flooded by turloughs. To be eligible for assistance under this one-off scheme, a homeowner had to meet a number of conditions, including that floodwater entered and damaged the building during or as a result of flooding during relevant dates such as to render it uninhabitable and that there was no viable engine…

As the Deputy will appreciate, a long-standing precedent means I cannot comment on individual cases in the House because I do not have the details. If the Deputy furnishes them to me, I can have them examined by the OPW and the relevant officials in the Department.

My two immediate predecessors in this role - Deputy Canney and former Deputy Moran - worked on the development and design of this scheme and the OPW will always hold it in our arsenal. If we need to revert to the Government with a similar request for relocations on a case-by-case basis, the OPW, together with the relevant authority, will seek to do that based on the lessons we have gleaned. As the Deputy rightly alluded, the farmyard relocation scheme is a matter for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Mari…

I am advised by the Office of Public Works that a major flood relief scheme for Donegal town was identified in the flood risk management plans for the north-western river basin. The proposed project, at a preliminary cost estimate of €8.5 million, consists of floodwater storage and a series of flood embankments and walls, which will provide flood protection to approximately 73 properties when completed. The flood scheme will be funded through the Government's €1.3 billion allocation for flood risk management, funde…

In the immediate aftermath of Storm Barra, I met the commissioners and chairman of the Office of Public Works and senior officials on a regionalised basis, dealing not only with the north west but with all our regions, to see if we could expedite those projects not currently in tranche 1. We have an issue in that, unfortunately, some of our projects are logjammed in judicial reviews, court challenges and a pile of other delays outside our control and the control of our local authority partners. It is a matter of tr…

I said in answer to an earlier priority question from Deputy Cairns from Cork South-West that we do not have the capacity, capability or even legal standing to move projects any faster because we are a party to planning processes. If we were to decide to try to gazump the planning process, people inside and outside this House would be looking to try to get us into the Four Courts. We have to move flood risk management processes through a sequential process. We are conscious of the risk to Donegal town and to all th…

An Blascaod Mór is a nationally and internationally significant heritage site due to the important literary and cultural output of this tiny community in the first half of the 20th century and the substantial collection of books – nearly 100 in all – that have been written about life on the Blasket Islands in the past century. An Blascaod Mór is also part of the Blasket Islands special area of conservation with the highest level of environmental protection. The State purchased the majority of the holdings on the is…

I get many invitations, but the Deputy's invitation to spend a night with him on the Blasket Islands is a unique one. I probably cannot resist it, to be fair. I know that part of the world well. I visited recently and there is a great community there. The Office of Public Works was delighted to be able to sort out the issue with the playground with the local community. I thank Deputy Griffin for facilitating that meeting. I was there previously ag foghlaim na Gaeilge. I commit to going down again as soon as the wea…

We are looking forward to reopening the centre on the mainland. Deputy Griffin is right. We also want to be able to reach out to the diaspora from the island who emigrated to North America, in particular to Springfield in Connecticut where many people from the island settled. We want to allow people to see where their people came from and from where they were evacuated to the mainland because of safety concerns of the Government at the time. Many of them emigrated to the United States and beyond. If we want them to…

I thank the Deputy. This scheme is being progressed under the Arterial Drainage Acts, and therefore is the subject of formal confirmation by the Minister, as he just stated. This is a statutory requirement under the Arterial Drainage Acts, which, under recent European Union regulations of 2019, also require the Minister to carry out an environmental impact assessment of the proposed scheme. This involves a formal review by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform of the environmental impact assessment and a N…

First, the commitment of the OPW and Mayo County Council is well documented. I thank Deputy Dillon and other Government Deputies from County Mayo who have given their support to this. I have been to Crossmolina and I am aware of the difficulties associated with this. The scheme will protect approximately 120 properties. The town has been inundated several times so we want to progress it. As the Minister stated with regard to his role in this, however, the Department has to be satisfied that when he makes a decision…