I wish to share my time with my colleague from west Cork, Deputy O'Donovan. I am pleased to have an opportunity to raise this important issue on the Adjournment.
We are speaking about one of the greatest pieces of political chicanery ever perpetrated on the people of west Cork in general and, more specifically, on the people in the Bantry Bay area. The parties guilty of that political chicanery are the Fianna Fáil-PD parties in Government. The only way they can absolve their guilt is to provide the funds which were committed for the new pier in Bantry and promised prior to the last election.
Prior to the election the need for a new pier in Bantry was obvious. In terms of tonnage we are talking about a throughput in Bantry Bay which makes it the third biggest port in the country. Last year alone, 500,000 tonnes of oil went through the port. In addition, 800,000 tonnes of stone was shipped through the Tarmac Fleming jetty. We are also talking about the largest oil storage facility in the country in Bantry Bay and, of course, the largest whitefish port is in Castletownbere in one corner of the bay. We are talking about one of the biggest bays in the world which needs a proper pier. The need is obvious and there was an agreement on all sides to provide it, including on the part of the Government.
The figure involved is €6.5 million euro. As far back as August 2000, there was agreement on the part of the then Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Fahey, to provide a grant from the Department of £1.5 million, which would translate into €1.9 million. At a later stage there was agreement for a further £500,000 from the same Minister. Then the question of the balance arose and, on Deputy Fahey's suggestion, an application was lodged for a grant under the national development plan. Under the plan one could receive up to 35% of the balance. Again, the question arose, from the point of view of going ahead with the job, as to whether the grant from the NDP would be available. That grant was committed by the last Government. Two days prior to the election a letter was sent to Deputy O'Donovan. I obtained a copy of the letter under the Freedom of Information Act. The letter from the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Fahey, to Deputy O'Donovan reads:
Dear Denis
I am writing to inform you that I will approve Bantry Bay Harbour Commissioners' application for 35% grant aid for a new pier development.
Coincidentally or otherwise, on the same day his constituency colleague, the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Deputy Walsh, was on local radio, County Sound. The presenter, John Green, asked him were there any further developments in the Bantry area, to which he replied:
As a final thing I got word today in the middle of all the various other things that I had got provision under the NDP for essential money for the new inner harbour pier in Bantry, so that will go ahead now in the next couple of weeks so that is a great shot in the arm for Bantry.
This money was fully committed and on that basis the project was to proceed. So far the Bantry Bay Harbour Commissioners have spent €800,000 on the project. Prior to the election they received a reimbursement of €190,000. What has happened since the election? Nothing. There have been letters, telephone calls, representations, parliamentary questions and nothing has happened. What has happened is that since the election the current Minister who is not here – I want to know why he is not here to answer for his responsibilities because he should be here – has turned and twisted in every way possible to try to wriggle out of the commitments made by the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats Government. I am aware that he sent the papers to the Attorney General in an effort to get a legal escape hatch out of the written commitments that had already been given for a grant.
I am saying now that we must end this sorry saga. I am asking the Government to discharge the commitments made and keep its promises. I will finish in order to give a brief word to my west Cork colleague, Deputy O'Donovan, who must be the most embarrassed Deputy in the Dáil as a result of the political chicanery of his colleague in the Fianna Fáil-PD Government. I demand action and I hope Deputy O'Donovan will support me.
