Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett. Question No. 10 in my name is about the same matter. This is part of the heritage of every Irish person. It is a place with which people are very familiar. I am certainly very familiar with it since I was first brought there as a small child. What I am really upset about is that "private property" signs, as I am sure the Minister is aware, have begun to appear on the road above the lake. Mountaineering Ireland has written to the Minister specifically about the Luggala estate. Will she agree to meet its representatives who really look after the mountains? We also know of a gate beside the estate that is being closed, it appears, at 5.30 p.m. We know that the owners of the Guinness Trust are resident in the Channel Islands and, I think, Guernsey. The Luggala estate is a precious piece of our heritage which was magnificently looked after and utilised not just for estate purposes but also for films and music by Garech de Brún whose death, sadly, took place recently. We must not allow a trust in the Channel Islands to decide that the Irish people - men, women and children - should lose what has been part of their heritage practically forever. The Minister needs to address this issue as a matter of urgency.

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