Frank Feighan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I took great interest in Project Ireland 2040 - Linking People and Places when it was launched in June. There are many elements of the plan which are both necessary and welcome. I particularly welcome the fact that the plan refers to an investment of €53 million in greenway infrastructure between 2019 and 2021. However, I have a difficulty. Perhaps the problem lies not with the Department but with the local authority. On four different occasions funding was announced for a so-called greenway between Boyle in County Roscommon and Lough Key Forest Park. What did the local authority do with that funding? It built footpaths in an area with the first round of funding. When it got a second round of funding it built more footpaths and it did up some of the roads with the third tranche.

Many local authorities did not really enter into the spirit of what constitutes a greenway. When one goes to Germany, Amsterdam and other parts of Holland, one sees that little villages and towns are linked by walking paths and cycle paths. We have applied again for funding for a greenway between Lough Key Forest Park and my town of Boyle. This is necessary infrastructure because the park is a major tourist attraction. The town of Boyle needs this investment and the greenway must be fast tracked. Roscommon County Council has not entered into the spirit of greenways. It has used greenway funding to repair roads instead of using road funds for such work.

I have pointed out to members of my party who are in government that there are approximately ten towns in the country that are lacking the most basic infrastructure, namely, a hotel. Boyle, for example, had two hotels 20 years ago but now has none. Lough Key Forest Park is nearby and I urge the Minister to visit what is a huge success story. In the early 2000s, Coillte owned Lough Key Forest Park which is the jewel in the crown of parks in the country. Coillte could not draw down funding from the European Regional Development Fund because it was a semi-State company. I came up with the idea that Roscommon County Council could get on board with Coillte in order to be able to draw down funding. All the council had to do was come up with €2 million, which it did and now the people of Roscommon and Ireland have a stake, with the semi-State organisation, in Lough Key Forest Park. We have drawn down nearly €20 million in funding and it is a huge success. There are approximately 80 people employed in the park and the company is making around €20,000 per year but Boyle does not have a hotel.

An Bord Pleanála has refused planning permission for five hotels in the past ten to 15 years. Lough Key Forest Park, a major tourist attraction drawing hundreds of thousands of paying visitors every year, is two miles from Boyle but there is no hotel infrastructure in the town. The downturn following the boom has meant that nobody will build a hotel because one can buy one from NAMA for a fraction of the price. I am trying to get the local authority involved. I understand that funding cannot be given to a private developer but there must be some way for the local authority to build a hotel and then lease it out. Boyle is dying because it does not have that necessary piece of tourism and social infrastructure.