John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Can I ask you both this, I only have a minute left. In relation to the national spatial strategy, which we touched on previously, and decentralisation, in the two roles that you were both in at the time, was the Construction Industry Federation involved in lobbying extensively on both of those matters? I can remember being in a different role in the Seanad at the time of the decentralisation announcement. You were junior Minister in the Department of Finance. There was general surprise the day that the Minister stood up to give the budget statement and virtually all of it was on the matter of decentralisation, which seemed to come out of the blue. Were you aware? Had you been lobbied by the CIF or others? Were you aware of the budgetary statement and what was-----