Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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A considerable amount of time has elapsed since the original scheme for Lough Funshinagh was abandoned, following judicial review or whatever the case was at the time. The case was taken by someone who did not live in the area at all. My concern is coming directly from people who live in my constituency. Householders and farmers have been discommoded severely in going about their business. They have been discommoded in not being able to live in their homes in some cases. They have been discommoded by virtue of the roads that have to be closed off. Who pays for all this in the final analysis? For example, if the judicial review was sufficiently grounded to cause the scheme to be abandoned and restarted, who is to blame for all of that? Is it the case that the local people should not have been living there in the first place, as someone tried to tell me at one stage? That does not wash with the local people. At this stage, the local people are asking how long more must this go on. I acknowledge that the Minister of State said that it is in process but the process is taking an inordinate amount of time for the people who have been directly and negatively affected.