Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I know this is something the Deputy has raised with me on a number of occasions. The development of the Caladh Mór pier on Inis Meáin is included in the NDP. As the Deputy will be aware, Galway County Council is responsible for the development of stage 3 of this project. As part of the preparatory works, the National Maritime College of Ireland was requested by Galway County Council to develop a model simulation for the harbour. The council has collated the technical specifications of the key vessels that use the harbour and this data will be fed into the simulation. It is hoped that the simulation will be completed and tested, with feedback given, by the end of August. To feed into this process, additional bathymetric studies are also to be carried out in the harbour to gather further data. This will be a multi-beam mapping survey, which will be highly detailed, but which requires suitable conditions to be carried out. Galway County Council advised my Department at a meeting between officials last week that, due to unsettled weather and marine conditions, the bathymetric survey has not yet been completed. It is hoped that conditions will settle in the next week or so, allowing for completion of the survey. Once this work has been completed, Galway County Council will incorporate the findings into a draft business case. Following on from this, my Department will be in a position to evaluate the next steps in the process.

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