Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would not accuse anybody of deliberately slowing it down, but if one begins from a standing start it could take six months to develop a plan. If this happens, they will have to wait. The Minister of State mentioned County Galway and I did not, but I will take her up on it. If there were two bidders in County Galway each would have to submit a plan for the entirety of County Galway and they could not submit a plan for part of County Galway. There would be two or three plans for the whole area. Each bid must cover the whole declared area, such as all of County Leitrim or all of County Galway. A plan cannot be submitted for a sub-area. Will the Minister of State confirm this because it is important? In any area with competing bids, the slowest bid will determine the timescale up to six months. This seems to indicate that by the time contracts are signed and all the formalities are done, it will be next year. I take it the single bid counties could be three months faster.

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