Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have work to do, as has everyone around this table.

I am glad that Ms Begley asked about the A5 project in order that I can put the issue firmly to bed. The Government will make money available for the project when it is ready to proceed. We have not pulled funding from it. In many ways, it was a saving that was offered to us because the project would not be ready to draw down funds until the end of the year at the earliest. As soon as it moves ahead and there is a need for funding, the Irish Government will meet its commitment straightaway. There will be no delay in that regard. The way it was explained and sold probably led to some ambiguity that should not have been allowed to gain traction because people were talking about the Irish Government pulling money from the project to pay for the national children's hospital which was proving to be more expensive than we had thought it would be, but that is not what is happening. If the project is ready to proceed in June, July or August, the money will be made available and we will have to find a saving somewhere else. However, we are being told that the project will not be ready to start drawing down money until the end of the year at the very earliest and probably into the start of next year. We are absolutely committed to spending the money we have signed up to spend to support the project because we know that we need to connect the north west more effectively to the rest of the country and the A5 project is a big part of that objective. We have committed to giving €75 million in total, but it was more than that. The figure was reduced in the midst of the recession in Ireland when we were borrowing huge amounts of money from an emergency fund, with a lot of strings attached which made it very difficult for us to commit to giving €400 million. That is why the figure was reduced to €75 million. I am pretty confident that if the project gets under way, the Irish Government will not hold it up owing to a lack of funding. We need to speak to the British Government about the matter to have it built. I promise those present that, as a Government, we are very committed to having the A5 project completed.

In response to Mr. Brady, my understanding is the RHI inquiry was fairly robust and that it is going to report next month. It is going to be an awkward period in which some people may be put under pressure. Of course, lessons need to be learned and the new Executive will need to take account of them, but people should not be waiting for the inquiry to report in order to use it in a destructive way. Instead we should be learning lessons from it, fix what was broken and then try to get the Executive functioning again, but there is a danger that the bitterness that may come from the inquiry will delay even further the opportunity to get the Executive up and running. I am not for one minute saying we should ignore the recommendations made; of course, we should not. When I say "we," I am referring mainly to the political parties in Northern Ireland. There will have to be political consequences after such an inquiry. I respectfully suggest the consequences should include a restructuring of how the new Executive will work in order to make sure that whatever is uncovered by the RHI inquiry cannot happen again because the systems in place will not allow it.

In response to Deputy Brendan Smith's comments, we did consider having an independent chair. We received a recommendation and towards the end of last year approached somebody to be an independent chair, but that person then had to pull out. We are talking to the parties and there is no real objection to having an independent chair, but the Governments have to determine whether they should bring in somebody new to the process and spend weeks or months waiting for them to build trust, confidence and relationships with the parties to get a deal done, or whether they should build on some of the work done up to a year ago. As all of the parties know each other pretty well at this stage, we have to decide whether we have the capacity to start a process that would last not for months but for weeks and which would involve the two Governments also doing some heavy lifting in moving some of these difficult and contentious but important issues forward. We are having some direct discussions with the British Government on how best we can do this. I do not think anybody has the energy or enthusiasm for a new five or six-month process. What everybody seems to want is honest and comprehensive interaction to get several things done and agreements in place which would provide a basis for re-establishing the Executive. To be honest, it will take a lot of work to get there because the trust issues of the past four or five months have been very damaging.