Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I do not dispute it was a good idea. Unfortunately, it has not been the success all of us might have hoped. There has not been a meeting for more than a year and Deputy Ó Cuív is aware that on the last couple of occasions, when great efforts were made to convene a meeting, it broke up in some disarray because of the activities of a small number of people who are not representative of the area.

Deputy Ó Cuív properly raises the issue of the benefits that might redound to the local area. That is a useful aspect of the dialogue. A great deal has happened since Peter Cassells was brought in by my predecessor. I was involved in that decision myself. He went to do a task that was very useful with tangible, beneficial spin offs for the area as a result of the Cassells report. I do not intend to disband the forum, I will be briefed by its chairman within the next couple of weeks and I will listen to what he has to say.

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