Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Keelbeg Pier in Union Hall, west Cork has been hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons in recent weeks. Cork County Council commissioned a report by engineering consultants, ByrneLooby, and was advised to close part of the pier. This has rightly led to great anger among pier users in Union Hall and its surrounds. The Tánaiste visited the pier in June 2021 and the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, visited it later in 2021. Advice was given to Cork County Council to seek funding for a development option study. A letter that was sent by the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, to Cork County Council in July 2021 states where this application for funding should be sent. The council applied for the funding and it ended up being refused. Let us fast forward to January 2023. In a question and answer session in this House, I pushed the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, to explain why this funding was not given and was told that no application had been sent in for funding. I now have evidence that an application for more than €200,000 was sent by the council to the section of the Department it was told to apply to. First, the Minister should come before the Dáil to correct the record but, more importantly, will immediate funding be made available for a study on carrying out repair works to this pier so it can be kept open for the people of Union Hall?

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