Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

A site for the departmental headquarters was identified in Charlestown, County Mayo, but the planning application for it was refused by An Bord Pleanála. A second site was identified in Charlestown but no contract with the owner would be entered into until planning was approved. Last July, Cairn International Trade Centre, a company owned by IRD Kiltimagh Limited which administered the Leader programme and rural social scheme, made an approach concerning a site it has in Kiltimagh. The Minister has informed me that to date €400,000 has been spent on refurbishing offices in Tubbercurry and €200,000 leasing them. Cairn International Trade Centre has already received over €20,000 of Leader funding to complete a feasibility study on the building. It has also drawn down a loan of €1 million from the Western Development Commission, which falls under the Minister's brief. If the Kiltimagh office were chosen, will it be a case of the Department paying for the buildings twice? To me this resembles "Fawlty Towers" where the Department gives moneys to the Western Development Commission which, in turn, gives it to Cairn International Trade Centre to build offices which then expects the Department to pay rent for. Has Charlestown or Kiltimagh been chosen as the site for the decentralised departmental offices?

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