Ms Bríd Ní Chonghaile:

The Deputy asked about the major capital projects on Inis Oírr and the timelines for that. As he will know, the business case was approved by the Minister and we are now working with consultant engineers and Galway County Council to progress that. There has been an application for a foreshore licence and, obviously, that will take some time. The projection is that the project will be tendered in the first half of next year, with work beginning, we hope, in the second half of the year. I think everyone appreciates that works on the islands, and marine works in particular, are very difficult.

We hope that off-site pre-casting work and that type of development will take place during the winter next year and that the majority of the actual construction would happen in 2023. Work is ongoing to progress the options for the Inis Meáin project. Members may be aware that we did business with the National Maritime College of Ireland to set up a simulation and we need to progress that further. There may be surveys needed to complete the simulation so that it can build a computer replica of the different vessels that go in to see how they would adapt to any changes that would be done to the breakwater or the access to that pier-----