Before I reported progress, having dealt with the national importance of the Board of Works, I then related my remarks to the local importance of the Board of Works and in particular to the constituency which I represent and mentioned particularly the harbour at Dún Laoghaire. The previous Parliamentary Secretary, Deputy Gibbons, honoured us with a visit some time before he was elevated —I should like to take this opportunity of congratulating him on his elevation to the position of Minister for Defence: he is a very worthy holder of that office—and I hope the incumbent Parliamentary Secretary comes out to visit his holdings in that area. The Board of Works have vast holdings there. I should imagine they are about the biggest holdings in the Board of Works. Before dealing with Dún Laoghaire harbour and the responsibility which lies within the bailiwick of the Board of Works I dealt with the East Pier and the temporary car ferry which was there. The Parliamentary Secretary is now honouring an undertaking to take down this temporary car ferry terminal and to restore the East Pier to its former glory. We all know many people from the city and county of Dublin like to walk the length of the East Pier. It is an invigorating experience, particularly during the hard winter days, to take a walk down the pier on Saturdays or Sundays. Many young couples do this; others take their families. It is nice to know that the East Pier is to be restored. However, having given the Board of Works credit for that and for the new car ferry terminal, which is a tremendous boon to the area—it is one of the best in Europe, if not the best —I then drew attention to the Coal Quay and its effect on the area. We have many uses for this quay but the use I want to put it to is for the trawlermen of Dún Laoghaire. During the past two years I have had requests to have the Coal Quay reconstructed. The Board of Works put down a new surface. They took up the cobblestones and did a good job of resurfacing the quay in concrete.
There are many other problems in relation to the Coal Quay before it is a place men can walk on and from. I hope the Parliamentary Secretary will use his good offices to prevail on the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries to have a site made available for an icing plant for the trawlermen there. It is a great need. Another problem which the Parliamentary Secretary might look at is the matter of the navigation lights. There have been complaints from trawlermen about the length of time the lights have been left off. It is necessary to have them on at critical times when trawlermen come into this magnificent harbour.
Another matter, which may be mundane when discussing an Estimate of this sort but which is a real problem from the tourist point of view, is the toilet at the end of the Coal Quay. It is one of the most frightful, antediluvian objects. It could have been built in the era of the Napoleonic wars but I do not think it would have been accepted as a modern convenience even then. The Parliamentary Secretary should get some of his subordinates to have it destroyed forthwith and to have a suitable modern public convenience built in its place.
It is most important that the Coal Quay should be developed for tourists and it is too bad that the eyesore I have just mentioned should be allowed to stand there. It is not good enough. Within Dún Laoghaire harbour there is a tremendous esplanade. Yachtsmen are catered for, there is the ferry terminal and the fishermen are catered for at the Coal Quay. All these amenities are needed both for the benefit of the local community and for the tourists. So that the amenities may be improved, I should like to prevail on the Parliamentary Secretary to have the area examined.
There is one final point I wish to make. It relates to the conditions of employment of ordinary workers in Dún Laoghaire. I do not wish to be abrasive about it but when these men are asked to do various difficult jobs they should be enabled to work in normal conditions.
A few other points have occurred to me. There is the matter of a new hotel in the area. There has been a lot of criticism of me for having pursued this against all the odds. However, the people have come around to my way of thinking, and I couple Councillor Seán Byrne with this because he had been pressing for it when it was not popular to do so. The other night the tourist element in the area said it was disastrous that we did not get the hotel at the time. If the new hotel cannot be built at the railway station I hope the Parliamentary Secretary will be able to make an alternate site available.
There is also the matter of schools for mentally handicapped children. The Parliamentary Secretary, in his well-prepared brief, adverted to the number of schools that have been built. There have been 34 of them, with nine in the pipeline. These schools are for moderately handicapped children but there has been criticisms about schools for the severely handicapped. Let me assure the Parliamentary Secretary that the various organisations concerned are happy with the schools he has provided for the moderately handicapped. It is to the severely handicapped that I direct his attention. We have the Drumcar School but we must do a lot more in this field. This is not strictly relevant to the functions of the Parliamentary Secretary but I hope that if he is asked to build schools he will make greater proportionate provision for severely handicapped children. Only now are we beginning to realise that they are part of our society. That being so, we should be prepared to provide the best possible conditions for those unhappy people.