Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)

I thank the Minister of State for that response. I did not go directly to TII myself. I await a response from it, but this response from the Minister of State is helpful because it sets out the position.

Meath County Council has pointed to a pathway involving a TII-initiated process. That does not look like it is happening. In TII's inspection and its review Carlanstown has not come up. My question then was whether Meath County Council has the capacity or licence to initiate, through its own feasibility and options report, a proposal for Carlanstown. It is clear from the Minister of State's response that it can and that TII awaits that. I and the local public representatives need to take that back to Meath County Council and say it needs to initiate this. Then the question immediately becomes, and I hope this is one the Minister of State will take away, whether the funding will be there for this project, if it is a good project and if it is well designed, and how quickly we can make that happen. From our perspective, from the Meath end, we can contact the council and say it should get preparing its proposal for the feasibility and options report, get on to TII and we will pursue that. However, the question for the Department, TII and the Minister of State is whether there is scope to deliver this type of project, specifically whether there is scope to deliver it in Carlanstown.

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