Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House but I seek clarification from him on where this situation is from a Government perspective. One Department of Government is flagging Ireland's Ancient East. It is pushing the area as the east's answer to the Wild Atlantic Way with our beautiful scenery and our historical locations. At the same time we have a Department that wants to spoil all that scenery and those locations by putting up pylons when the cables could be put underground. One side of the Government is working one way and the other side is working the other way. With regard to village renewal schemes and the smaller scale cabling from one street light to another, there is a major push on village renewal schemes and enhancement schemes where money is provided to enhance the beauty of villages and small towns by putting cabling underground, which had been overground since cables and streetlights were introduced. This is being done for aesthetic reasons but we still want to put this monstrosity of a project overground through three major counties.

I will now turn to the Government's stance on this and I would like some clarification on where the Government is with regard to the situation.The morning after the Fianna Fáil motion was tabled in the Dáil the Government Chief Whip stated on LMFM that the Government would enact it. The Minister has come in here today with a watered down amendment that seeks to move the goalposts and change things back. Whom should we believe in the Government? Where is this project going if the Cabinet cannot agree? Why has one member of the Cabinet said the Government will implement the Fianna Fáil motion because it passed with great numbers in the Dáil while the Minister has come in here today asking to move the goalposts? We need the matter clarified. We also need a better answer than the one we got from the Minister in his statement on why the decision that was made has been made.