Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There have been several welcome announcements in regard to healthy living initiatives in Clare in recent days, relating to the construction of walkways, cycleways and greenways. The coastal walkway connecting Liscannor and Doolin, for example, was officially opened last Friday. It follows the opening of a beautiful cycle lane between Ennistymon and Lahinch.

Today it was finally announced that we will see research, development, planning and design for the old West Clare Railway, which will eventually connect Ennis to Lahinch via Corofin. Essentially, this will be a greenway that connects Ennis to the Burren through cycleways and coastal walkways. All of this is very healthy and good for tourism and economic development. It presents a package that will be very attractive internationally to people who want to come on healthy holidays to Ireland. There is a huge market for healthy holidays throughout the world and we can capture some of that and capitalise on it.

I want to bring to the attention of the Leader an unfortunate position with regard to the coastal walk. Clare County Council had the contract for this walk, but some of the subcontractors have not been paid. There is great merit in the allocation of public contracts in such a way that the local authorities or public bodies in question can retain a certain percentage of the funds to cover the cost of subcontractors that have not been paid. The news of the proposed works is positive, but unfortunately some people with families are still waiting for payment for works carried out on behalf of taxpayers. The taxpayers have paid, but the subcontractors are still waiting to be paid. This is a regrettable situation. We need to see an alteration to the e-tender documentation system to ensure we have some sort of protection for poor unfortunate subcontractors who are trying to make a living.