asked the Minister for Transport and Power the total sum paid to Drogheda Harbour Board to date in respect of the £375,000 dredging programme sanctioned.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Drogheda Dredging Programme.
6.
The total amount paid to the Drogheda Harbour Commissioners to date in connection with the approved scheme of improvement works is £83,218.
While a State grant of £175,000 was approved in principle in August 1960 towards the estimated cost of a comprehensive improvement scheme for Drogheda Harbour amounting to £350,000, no specific dredging programme has been sanctioned pending the outcome of a hydraulic model investigation commissioned by the Harbour Commissioners. Half the cost of this investigation is being met from the grant.
Would the Minister be able to say if there are any concrete proposals or if the Drogheda Harbour Commissioners have anything to show for the very substantial amount of money already expended on this scheme?
Of course, as the Deputy knows, there has been reconstruction of the quay which has been completed and then money was given for the acquisition of a dredger and some preliminary reports from the investigating team show that there may be a case for deepening the bar by five feet and the Harbour Commissioners are preparing to have a preliminary examination of these preliminary proposals in view of the anticipation that the report will come soon. So that things are moving a little.
Is the Minister not aware that the cost of the work on the quay was very small in proportion to the amount of money expended, that the dredger which was purchased is of no use to Drogheda Harbour Commissioners except when it is sent out to do work in other harbours, that it is unable to do the work there, that most of the money has been spent on useless planning and mapping which is changed from month to month, and that there are as yet no concrete proposals before the Minister's Department which can be sanctioned because nobody seems to know what is going to happen except that one set of figures is being supplied and changed the following week? Is it not true that, so far, it has been a complete waste of public money? Would the Minister have an investigation into the whole affair and see what is going to happen there?
I would not agree with the Deputy at all. The preliminary investigation has taken place. Certain conclusions have been arrived at and the consultants thought that it would be possible to dredge, on a very extensive scale, the bar of the river. It was then found not to be practicable because of the tidal race which, as the Deputy knows, goes across the harbour mouth. So we had to have this investigation, as in the case of other harbours. The Deputy knows that this questions of what constitutes a policy for any kind of dredging in a harbour mouth is extremely complex and that investigations have to be made and are being made.
Is the Minister aware that the simplest fisherman in Mornington would be able to supply the information which it took the experts a couple of years to find out? Will he not, even at this stage, have some inquiry made into what exactly they are playing at at Drogheda Harbour before it is completely silted up?
There are no simple fishermen at Mornington.
There were, but they are beginning to get a bit wise.