Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We will certainly help any organisation that wants to reach out to us. We have already done so. I chaired community meetings in Quin, County Clare, in Kinsale, County Cork, and on the Aran Islands with the comharchumann out there with regard to how the local community can maximise the potential of whatever the OPW owns in their communities, whether that is Dún Aonghasa, Charles Fort or Quin Abbey. We invited in the local authorities, the LEADER companies and Fáilte Ireland and had a discussion with the local community with regard to the infrastructure they believe necessary within the national monuments with a view to including this in the OPW's plan and with regard to the wider use of the likes of the Minister, Deputy Humphrey's Department in respect of the provision of signage, town and village renewal funding and so on. We are talking about the very basic things needed to accommodate people getting off of bus, such as bus bays and toilets. They always say you need the two Ps. You need somewhere to park and somewhere to pee if you are to pull up at a place. Once people pull up, park and pee, you might get them to spend money. It is in that spending of money that you keep coffee shops and pubs in rural locations open. The OPW is open and amenable to community requests to attend or facilitate meetings of that nature. We have no problem with that.