Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House and I acknowledge the help and assistance I have received from his office with regard to this ongoing issue. I acknowledge the guests in the Public Gallery, including former Ceann Comhairle, Dr. Rory O'Hanlon, and some of the people affected by and involved in this campaign from Carrickmacross. I acknowledge all the work done by the group here and others, including Pat Byrne who compiled a documentary on this issue to explain it all. I also acknowledge Tony Donagher for the work he has done, and Martin Crilly, solicitor, now deceased, unfortunately, who also put much work into this issue.

I acknowledge all the Oireachtas Members from the Cavan-Monaghan constituency for their input into this Bill. I acknowledge the councillors from the Carrickmacross-Castleblayney municipal district for their input. It is an issue where, thankfully, we all sing from the same hymn sheet and it is critically important for the people of Carrickmacross. It has been an issue there for a long time and we are now hopefully in the final stretch of finding a resolution to this issue.

I note that the Minister has done some work in this regard already and that he said here this afternoon that he plans to get a committee together which will hopefully report in the first quarter of 2018. I welcome that. An important ingredient in this is time and many of these people in Carrickmacross do not have much time. I respectfully suggest that I would be grateful if this matter could be treated as urgently as possible because some people do not have the luxury of time at the moment, unfortunately.

I acknowledge everybody's contribution to this, the contribution of the Minister's office and I thank his officials for their help and assistance. Hopefully, in the not too distant future, we will be in here again to speak about this when the legislation will have given the people of Carrickmacross an opportunity to buy out the ground rent of their businesses once and for all.