asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries when a decision will be made on the proposal to improve berthing facilities for fishing boats at The Lay-By, Galway Harbour.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Galway Harbour Facilities.
42.
This is a very complex matter having regard to the overall development of harbour facilities in the Galway area and is still under examination in my Department. I cannot commit myself at this stage to an opinion as to when a decision will be taken.
Could I ask the Parliamentary Secretary how long this matter is under consideration in his Department?
The matter is under consideration for some months. As the Deputy is aware, there is a major scheme in operation at present at Rossaveale which is some 12 miles from Galway Harbour. The question of proceeding with any further work on the improvement of The Lay-By is held in abeyance. The estimated cost of this work would be in the region of £300,000 and the engineering staffs of the Department and of the Office of Public Works are going into all aspects of this question to see whether, if the scheme were to be carried out, the advantages would be commensurate with the large cost involved.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that he informed the House on a previous occasion that the technical officers of his Department were carrying out a survey of this lay-by? Has he yet received their report?
We are awaiting the final report. I do not see the absolute urgency of determining this question at the present time having regard to the works in operation in the neighbourhood. The Deputy, I am sure, knows more about the lay-by than I do and if it was as urgent as he now asserts it is to have improvements carried out there he was in a favourable position over an extended period of years to have the work carried out. He cannot expect me to reach a decision in a few months on something that his party were unable to determine in the 16 years they were in office.
The Parliamentary Secretary should check his dates. This proposal only came before his Department early in 1973, some short months before the Fianna Fáil party went out of office. I would also ask the Parliamentary Secretary to check again the distance he has given from the lay-by to the proposed harbour at Rossaveale as he seems to be badly informed. May I finally ask the Parliamentary Secretary whether he is ever going to live up to his promise to come down and inspect the inadequate fishery facilities there are for the huge fleets that are now following the herring shoals off the west coast in recent years?
I am fully conversant with the reports submitted. I am going to Galway——
When there is a blue moon.
——and I hope to meet the Deputy there.
Question No. 43.
If the reports to which the Parliamentary Secretary is referring are as inaccurate as his estimate of the distance from Rossaveal to the lay-by, then they are very inaccurate.
I have reports here and it is a good job the Deputy did not ask too many more questions.
They do not seem to be much good to the Parliamentary Secretary.
He is 12 months going to Galway and he has not gone yet. He should pack it up.
The Deputy was never in Tullycross, he told me.
(Interruptions.)
Deputy Molloy, please.