Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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There is no point in reiterating - more money, more money and we know the source. Hold on to what you have will be a constant theme.

The National Parks and Wildlife Service is an integral part of the Department, and it is not an agency. I wish to raise the issue of the national infrastructure and the possibility that the development plans of one Department would be stymied because of designations and conservation approach of the Department and this could happen throughout the country. A similar issue arose between 1997 and 2001 in respect of archaeology and a very good protocol was drawn up that seems to have largely resolved such issues when major infrastructure has been developed. There are good archeological protocols and everybody seems to agree on what is preserved, what is recorded and when one has to reroute a proposed road.

As the Minister and Ministers of State know, we have a particular difficulty in respect of the Maam Cross to Clifden road. This could happen anywhere because in one case it seems that method statements cannot be agreed for a planning permission given and in another case, planning was turned down. I understand that one arm of the Department, the Gaeltacht division, was supporting the project, whereas another division, the NPWS opposed the project, which must be quite bizarre. I nearly wound up in a similar situation when I was Minister.

Would the Minister be willing to allow her officials to come before the committee to discuss this matter on two levels? The first would be to talk about the national issue, which is a big issue, and the need to put in place protocols which would ensure that Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, Irish Water, county councils and any other organ of the State or agency acting for the State in providing basic infrastructure would have discussed the issues and the various bodies would have resolved the issues by a proper process in advance of submitting an application to An Bord Pleanála.

Second, I request that the officials would update members specifically on the N59 and tell us what been done to resolve the impasse in order that we would have new proposals to apply for planning for the second part of the road and resolve the issue of the method statements on the first half. Would the Minister be willing for her officials to brief us on these issues?