Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I met Mr. Gillen last week and he has a point. We had representatives of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine here and they talked about the current leases. Mr. Gillen said there were many vacant properties in Howth and that the Department was doing nothing about them because there was no incentive to lease them. He has been seeking to lease one of them but has been unable to do so for unspecified reasons. Much of the business is going to Kilkeel, County Down. I do not suggest we immediately accept his invitation to all pile out to Howth in a bus to see what is going on, for which I suspect there would not be much of an appetite. However, perhaps we might write to the Department to ask which properties are vacant, what is happening, why they are vacant and what approach is being made in order to receive an update and a full account of the issue. Having met Mr. Gillen and heard what he had to say, he is talking a lot of sense.