asked the Minister for Finance why there is such a delay in the commencement of work to improve Kilmore Quay Harbour, County Wexford.
22.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Kilmore Quay (Wexford) Improvement.
21.
asked the Minister for Finance when it is intended to proceed with the work of improvement to Kilmore Quay, County Wexford.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 21 and 22 together.
As I indicated in reply to the Deputy's question on 5th May last, it was intended to invite tenders shortly after that with a view to starting works during the summer of 1965. About that time experience in the construction of the breakwater for the Major Fishery Harbour at Dunmore East made it clear that procuring of rock to the required size at Kilmore would be difficult, if not impossible, and in any event would be much more costly than had been allowed for in the estimate. The estimate was, therefore, reviewed in the light of this experience and of recent developments in breakwater design. A substantial increase in the estimate resulted. Unfortunately, as this coincided with the general financial stringency, consideration of the scheme has had to be deferred.
It is honest, anyway. What the Parliamentary Secretary has said is that he has not got the money.
Not quite that. A decision was made, on the basis of increased costs of materials, to alter the estimate.
When was that discovered?
That is embodied in the reply which states:
As I indicated in my reply to the Deputy's question on 5th May last, it was intended to invite tenders shortly after that with a view to starting works in the summer of 1965.
The Parliamentary Secretary is out of date. Is he not aware that officers of his Department and of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries went to Kilmore Quay in the middle of August, that they gave a firm figure of £78,000 to do the work, including the new works mentioned by the Parliamentary Secretary? The fishermen were told the work would begin in the spring.
Since then they went bust.
Like you did.
At least it is a good thing that now they are admitting they have gone bust.
In the middle of August, officials from the Departments of Finance and Agriculture and Fisheries assured the fishermen the work would start in the spring.
Engineering advice on this in September was that the cost which had originally been estimated would have to be revised.
One final question: why did the two Departments take such a lot of pains to go down and interview the fishermen? As far as I know, they have not yet told the fishermen the work will not be done in the spring. It is discourteous on the part of the officials, to say the least of it.
The effective part of the whole thing is that the estimate for the job had to be revised.
They would have understood it if they had been told then?
At that time experience in the construction of the breakwater at Dunmore East made it clear that the procuring of rock would be much more costly than had been allowed for in the estimate. If this revision had not been made we would have been working on a false premise.