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

I welcome the Minister's commitment to consider Friday for such a meeting. It would be very convenient for everybody to once and for all get around the table and resolve this issue. Environmental heritage is important and nobody doubts it, but the road from Maam Cross to Recess was widened many years ago and a railway line was built through Connemara. Despite that we still have this fantastic ecology that the Minister is preserving. It seems disproportionate that after four years of negotiations between the Minister and the county council, we cannot resolve what we need to do. The project is not the building of a new road but the widening of the existing dirt track into a road. Many people in Connemara are tempted to put up big signs with the words "horses and carts from here on in" along the route. It is ridiculous and I ask the Minister to organise a meeting for Friday. This is now a matter of crucial importance. The Minister of State will be able to brief the Minister on how offended are all of the preservers of the environment of Connemara who live there at the top-down attitude being taken by officialdom here and in Brussels towards their heritage.

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