Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

On the correspondence from the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht concerning the airstrips, could I request that we would get a further breakdown of the detail? A very considerable amount of money was spent. The feasibility study was conducted in 1997. Two airstrips were completed, one in Clifden and the other in Inisbofin, in 2009 and 2011, respectively. Another study was done on how to manage them and so on. The total amount of money was in the region of €9 million, and the ongoing managerial aspect involves a very substantial amount also.

In regard to the amount of money spent on the purchase of the airstrip, the contract for the construction, in one case it is over €5 million and over €3 million in the other case. Could we get a breakdown of where the money was spent? It is not in the reply that was given. There are two replies. One from the Secretary General, Mr. Hamill, and the other reply is from the Department itself, presumably in Mr. Hamill's name, but there are two separate documents. It is not in Mr. Hamill's document but in the other document. There is the reference to the timescale and so on. Could I request that we get a full breakdown of the costs in regard to all the items of expenditure that brought about the situation where close to €10 million was spent?

There was no detail either on the future use of those airstrips. There is the optimistic hope that they might be used by the Coast Guard or by a private person to set up some sort of tourist resource but there is no firm information on that. We do not even know whether these people are still engaged with the Department on it. It is very much up in the air. There was no extra detail on what was given to us when they appeared before the committee. Could we get a full breakdown of that?