Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

While the Minister of State is probably unaware of it, there is a Twitter account with a significant following in Cork which archives and catalogues the sorry history of the events centre. When the account became aware that I was raising this matter this afternoon, it tweeted “Standing by to be underwhelmed by the answer”. I must acknowledge that the account was right. I am rather underwhelmed myself. In fact, the answer is in three different fonts and has the distinct look of something dusted down from elsewhere and tweaked a bit.

This whole matter has gone on far too long at every stage already. Everyone knows that. However, I find the fact that the Minister of State is not even in a position to tell me when a decision will be made on this specific grant application very concerning and simply not good enough. Is the Minister of State even in a position to give us a date for a decision? There is less and less faith in the process and uncertainty is growing. The Government can restore some confidence and certainty in the process by making a decision on this and stating clearly when it will issue. Reports in the Irish Examinerfollowing on from questions from my colleague, Deputy Michael McGrath, highlighted the fact that there were issues with the licensing agreement on the initial stream of Government funding of €12 million. Can the Minister of State say whether the issue of the original €12 million as well as the €10 million will be dealt with as part of the same decision? Will a decision be made on both these matters as soon as possible? Can the Minister of State give us a date?

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