Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has not denied that he said on 12 December that the fire certification must be up to date and once evidence of sign-off is received from the local authority and provided to the Department, a contract is signed. Did his Department get a sign-off before he signed the contract? That is what he said he would do in December. In February, it is quite clear that the he did not get such a commitment and he signed off illegally. The Minister can shake his head if he wants; the fact is he did not do it. As I speak, the fire certificate has not been issued. The key point about the anger in Drogheda is because of the Minister's lack of consultation, a crowd from the Irish Freedom Party tried to stir up trouble in our town, as they did in other parts, and continue to do, burning places and God knows what. They had a rally in Drogheda and when they asked if somebody from Drogheda would speak, nobody did because nobody supports them. I do not support them and the people I speak for do not. However, they also do not support the Minister in what he has done. He said he still open to discussion. I believe that there is no contract now. If he needs to go in with a shared facility, he can go ahead and do that.

Well, the Minister may go ahead and do that, but he needs to know that as he speaks today, more than 220 places are on offer to his Department in different parts of Drogheda. I believe they will more than meet the need that the Minister will eventually meet in that hotel. I say to the Minister to take up those other places. Leave the hotel to the people. Leave the hotel to tourism. Leave the hotel to business interests. However, we do absolutely welcome, and always have done, all the people who come into our town.

Finally, more than 200 contracts have been signed since 2020, but none of them has a cooling-off period. Therefore, if the Minister finds that somebody has erred or made a mistake, or in the case that the Minister makes a mistake, there is no cooling-off period. The contracts stand regardless and that is bad ministerial and Government business. We want to be on the Minister’s side and not against him.

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