Vol. 280 No. 8
asked the Minister for Finance when the Office of Public Works will fence off a section between the BTE office and the Committee of Agriculture office in Navan, County Meath, in accordance with the agreement made two years ago when the committee sold a portion of land to the Office of Public Works.
29.
asked the Minister for Finance if he will arrange for the erection of a sign on the Navan to Kells road, County Meath, indicating the direction of the BTE office in Navan.
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 28 and 29 together.
Tenders for various site works at the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries office on the Navan/Kells road, Navan, including the erection of a fence and the provision of a sign, will be invited inside the next two or three weeks and a contract will be placed as soon as possible.
Why has it taken so long? I understand the sale of this property by the Committee of Agriculture was completed about two years ago and there was an undertaking given that there would be a 20-foot fence erected?
It goes back further than that. In 1969 the County Meath Committee of Agriculture sold a site to the Commissioners of Public Works for the erection of Government offices in Navan. They sold a further site to the Office of Public Works in 1973 as an extension to that site. A prefabricated office to accommodate Department of Agriculture and Fisheries staff engaged on the brucellosis eradication scheme was erected on the site as a matter of urgency. It is proposed to build permanent Government offices on the site and planning for this is in progress. In the meantime, it is necessary to erect a fence between the County Committee of Agriculture property and the Government-owned site, to provide a temporary entrance, to light the avenue from the entrance to the office, to provide a sign and to tidy up the site generally. Tenders will be invited within the next two weeks.
Will that include a sign showing the BTE office, because quite a number of people go into the Committee of Agriculture office first?
Is that far away?
Only a few yards, but it means they must turn in a narrow space.
We will get a sign erected then.
