Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

The matter has not been in the legal system since the Supreme Court judgment. This is primarily a matter for the OPW and the Deputy should, accordingly, table a question to the Department of Finance. Negotiations took place with the landowners. I wish to state as a general principle, rather than specifically in regard to An Blascaod Mór, that where one is achieving a result by agreement, one cannot allow oneself to be forced into a situation in which one is made to agree to the impossible. In other words, value for money and so on come into play. The issue has been dealt with on a voluntary basis since the Supreme Court case struck down the Bill.

It takes two to tango. To achieve a result, the obligation is equally on the owners to accommodate reasonable requirements of the State as it is on the State to try to accommodate the owners. One cannot have an imbalanced arrangement just because the State is a party to it. One would rightly criticise the State if an open cheque book approach was taken to resolving problems. If that were the case, questions would be asked about the procedures that were followed. I hope the matter can be resolved, but in that type of negotiation it is not acceptable to set a deadline for resolution. Whether these issues can be resolved depends on how reasonable are the requests of the other side.

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