Kevin Moran (Longford-Westmeath, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy O'Brien for his comments. As the commissioner, Mr. Sydenham, said we did look at the tidal barrier but it was not cost-efficient. On my visit to Cork I met with people, including people from the Save Cork City group. The idea of the model at City Hall is one I have used. I have seen, in a number of areas, that people have observations on the heights of walls. I do the ordinary thing, which is to cut an election poster to the height of the wall, paint it grey and put lines on it. That shows the height of the wall. People then say that is not what they are being told and that they are being told quite the opposite. That is similar to what has been going on in Cork. I am not saying that the people of the Save Cork City group do not have the best interests of Cork at heart, but this has been going on for eight years and Save Cork City has only come out with these waves, as I would call them, in the past 12 months or so. The first complaint was that we were not putting enough money into heritage. We are putting a considerable amount of money - €20 million - into the heritage of Cork, its quay walls and the infrastructure that is there. It is badly needed.

The widening of the footpaths at Morrison's Island, which the Deputy mentioned, is something that the people want. We have done nothing without consultation. We had quite a number of public consultation meetings. We even had them up here in the audiovisual room of Leinster House. The Deputies themselves did not take part in it. When people say that we did not engage, I would say that we engaged quite widely with all groups involved. As I said we are breaking the works up into different cells. People can see the model of the Morrison's Island works which is on show and they will see that we intend to get in and get out without much disruption to traffic or business. That is what we want to see.