Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

As the Deputy knows the decision to decentralise was made and the initial proposal was to locate at Knock Airport. The Government proceeded to acquire a site and sought planning permission which was granted by Mayo County Council. A sole person, Mr. Sweetman, who lives here in Dublin, as he is perfectly entitled to do, objected to An Bord Pleanála and in a decision that surprised me, An Bord Pleanála overturned the granting of planning permission. One of the reasons it gave was that there was not enough public transport. I can never get my head around how that could be the case at an airport, but so be it. At the time, back in 2008, the Government considered that decision and as the Deputy is aware the Government very quickly made a decision later in 2008 - I believe it was in October - to acquire a site in Charlestown. A site has been located in Charlestown. Following that a group from Kiltimagh proposed all sorts of buildings for us. That delayed us for another year and on it goes. The Deputy keeps asking me the questions and I keep saying we are looking at it.

I can tell the Deputy today that unfortunately or fortunately, the alternative building in Kiltimagh was also considered by the OPW and was found to be unsuitable, so we have lost a year. Unfortunately, I do not know what mí-ádh is on us because no sooner have we cleared the Kiltimagh proposal off the playing pitch than we have a problem in funding it in 2010 because the OPW's decentralisation capital budget has been cut back. While I have the decision to decentralise to Charlestown and I have a site that has been acquired, owing to all the delays - mostly third-party delays - unfortunately we cannot proceed at this point.

However, I encourage the Deputy to look to his colleague Deputy McGinley, who was rightly very persistent in pursuing me on the decentralisation of Foras na Gaeilge to Gaoth Dobhair. Many times over the years I believe Deputy McGinley thought we would never get there. However, we got the good news recently that this decentralisation is now proceeding and with much persistence and difficulty we are overcoming the problems. No doubt we will also overcome the problems with Charlestown. I am sure the people of Tubbercurry are delighted tonight. There are 91 civil servants located in a building in Tubbercurry and I am told it is doing considerable good for the town.

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