Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The people of Mayo, in particular, Ballina, are rightly proud of the legacy of Mrs. Mary Robinson for her work, as an iar-Sheanadóir, as a former President and as a former UN High Commissioner. It is important, if possible, that the Minister should work with the two organisations to ensure the archive has a facility for display in Ballina in Mayo, but it is also important that we protect the taxpayers' money.

I understand that the Minister accepted a guarantee of indefinite value from Mayo County Council with regard to the potential cost of this project. In other words, Mayo County Council stated that if there were unforeseen costs the Department would not accept, Mayo County Council would. This, in effect, is a blank cheque from a State organisation on a particular project. Did it not cause alarm to the Minister, given that she is also dealing with the Galway Picture Palace controversy where there is funding going into what looked to a certain extent like a black hole without the service being made available to the people of Galway as of yet?

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