Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The FLAGs have independent jurisdiction over how they allocate the funds. I do not wish to prejudge their take on this but I suspect that the expenditure in respect of dredging would be far in excess of the funding they have available - I think it is €2.7 million all across all the FLAGs for 2017. They are making a call for projects. I met with representatives from all the marine interests in Howth before Christmas and they made a very compelling case. It is complicated by the preliminary findings and the contamination. We will make announcements in the capital programme for 2017. I suspect it is probably too early on the dredging side. There is a substantial volume of work to be done and I hope we would be in a position to continue some improvement works in Howth, but perhaps not the dredging project.

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