Jimmy Deenihan
Question:2 Mr. Deenihan asked the Taoiseach when the special task force which he established on the future development of the Shannon estuary will report; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Shannon Estuary Development.
As I indicated to the House in my reply on 20 October last, a Shannon Estuary Project Team was established with the task of producing specific recommendations for the integrated development of the estuary.
The project team is now finalising its recommendations. These will be submitted to Government within the next month for decision as to future action. A statement will issue then on the decisions the Government take.
As the discussion document — the forerunner to the final document by the task force — excluded the Tarbert-Ballylongford landbank from any future infrastructural developments, what steps did the Taoiseach and his Government take to ensure that the landbank will be included in the final report submitted by the task force? What provisions have the Government made in the national plan to provide the necessary finance to implement the recommendations of the task force?
On the development plan, the Community Support Framework is under discussion between the Government and the European Commission and following agreement on that the operational programmes for the various sectors will be submitted to Brussels. They will then be published and no doubt will be the subject of a great deal of discussion. I will not anticipate the final agreement of the Community Support Framework or the operational programmes. The Tarbert-Ballylongford landbank is a matter for discussion and consideration by the project team and we should wait the publication of its recommendations.
Is the Taoiseach concerned that the landbank was not included in the discussion document circulated to the various port authorities in the Shannon Estuary for any future infrastructural developments? What steps is the Taoiseach taking to ensure that it will be included in the final report?
Those are matters for consideration by the project team. That is what the team was appointed to do and when it submits its recommendations the Government will make its decisions and they will be published in due course. It will then be appropriate to pursue the lines of inquiry to which the Deputy referred.
At the famous IMI conference the Taoiseach announced a new dawn for the estuary and said it would have transhipment possibilities. He subsequently changed those possibilities to a trading bridgehead. He announced also that new industrial projects would be set up in the estuary. Is the Taoiseach aware that the recommendations for the integrated development of the estuary refer to infrastructural developments there with consequential costs and implications for Europe? When will something be done by the project team about organising a sustainable and worthwhile project for the estuary?
The Deputy has had some latitude on the matter which should be adequate.
I am aware of the existence of the project team and its involvement with infrastructural development within the estuary——
This is Question Time, Deputy.
Will the team do something about attracting worthwhile job creating projects to the area?
Some of the development agencies represented on the project team no doubt have a similar interest to that of Deputies Deenihan, Finucane and myself in seeing that great asset of the Shannon Estuary developed. Nevertheless, we should await the recommendations of the project team and not anticipate what it may or may not recommend to Government. Neither should we anticipate the decisions the Government may take in that regard.
This was the project in which the former adviser in the Taoiseach's office, Dr. Con Power, was involved. Is his company still assisting with the project or who is handling the brief now?
We should not have any reference to a person outside the House.
The Deputy is slightly out of date. The members of the project team about which we are talking are Mr. Michael Daly, the Department of the Marine, Mr. Donal Enright, the Department of the Environment, Mr. John Griffin, Foynes Harbour Trustees, Mr. John Lloyd of IDA Ireland, Mr. Gerry Donnelly, Limerick Harbour Commissioners, Dr. Noel Whelan, University of Limerick, Mr. Brian Callanan, Mr. Kevin Thompstone and Mr. Richard O'Sullivan, Shannon Free Airport Development Company.
He is still pursuing the Poles and the Russians.