Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming to the Chamber and appreciate it when the line Minister responds. What he has outlined is substantially at variance with what I am hearing on the ground. Some 300 people turned up at a meeting in Skibbereen to discuss the alignment proposals, with which Cork County Council, like many other councils, is not happy. There is something radically wrong. Either the Leader company people are misleading us - I think not because their jobs and lives depend on it - or there is misinformation somewhere. It does not stack up. I hear about valuable projects on the Beara Peninsula, a remote area, the Mizen Peninsula, in Clonakilty and Bantry being stymied by a lack of funding. I must tease out this issue with the Minister on specific projects. My story is that they were ready to roll. There was a major announcement that they had lost €2.2 million, a substantial amount of money for any programme, because of which at least a dozen projects will be shelved.