Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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That is not the point. I agree with the Minister of State's points and am not contradicting them at all but that is not the issue at heart here. The issue at heart is the approval for Donegal town to advance a CFRAM scheme. The Minister of State is giving the impression, and can correct me if I am wrong, that it is solely in the hands of Donegal County Council to advance that scheme and that it does not require approval from the Minister of State or Department. My view is that it requires approval from the Minister of State and Department. In its presentation, Donegal County Council is basically saying that this scheme is essential. As we know, it needs approval to appoint consultants. When the Minister of State answered the question, he rightly pointed out that this is not one of the schemes in the first phase of projects but at the time last year, he acknowledged, as we all know, that much spending is going unspent because of planning difficulties. There is a need to reprofile some of that money and to advance schemes that are not being delayed.

This is why I am asking the Minister of State about Donegal town, and the same could be argued about Letterkenny, but let us focus on Donegal town for now. Donegal town needs to be given approval by the Department to say to go ahead, appoint consultants and prepare plans. God knows what will happen when it goes into planning.