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

I am sure the Minister of State shares my concern and frustration when Departments start pushing paper around from one to the other as if they are not all part of the same public service or the functioning of the Government, which is a collective of 15 people who are meant to ensure that all Departments work in tandem rather than against one another as rival companies. At what stage does the Government interfere and tell Departments that an answer is needed? Of course, there is always one quick way of getting an answer from a Department that is swinging the lead, so I do not accept the excuses from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. If it was not getting an answer from the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht in its various manifestations - it is now the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht - all it had to do was bring an aide-mémoire to the Cabinet. I assure the Minister of State that there would have been an answer from that Department and its Minister before the aide-mémoire ever got onto the Cabinet agenda. The Ministers all sit around the table together. It is their job collectively to run the country. I find this extraordinary.

I have with me a letter from 2017. It is part of the tennis match, where the ball is played into the other court, returns, gets played back again and so on without anything happening. This is a very simple issue. A lease or some other arrangement must be reached to permit the Coast Guard to erect its temporary and permanent structures. Actually, we can forget about the temporary structure at this stage and just go for the permanent one. Planning permission has to be acquired, but it has never been sought, and the structure must be built.

Would it be possible for the Minister of State to revert to the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport on foot of my raising this issue and ask for a timeline for the project and a list of the steps that need to be taken to bring it to a conclusion? It is time that the people of Connemara who are involved in the Coast Guard have set out for them the steps to be taken, the bodies responsible and the timeline to be adhered to. Obfuscating and moving the issue from one body to another is not acceptable, as the collective Government should ensure that bodies answer one another.

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