Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I take at face value the Minister's statement that he will encourage the DAA to have further engagement with residents. I will go back to what Senator Craughwell and I have said. There is an element of trust and a situation in which trust has broken down. I am taking it, because of the indications in earlier votes, that we are going to lose all our amendments, but I will make a direct appeal to the Minister. I would be happy to sit down with him on this. There are role models in respect of proper, good engagement in several Departments, where people have done good engagement in very difficult circumstances. Knowing how the votes are going to run here and that there has already been a vote in the Business Committee to take this in the Dáil on Thursday, I am very anxious that in some way we can work together to alleviate the problems of many of the residents. I much prefer to believe that we could have alleviated them through votes here in the House, but knowing how Fianna Fáil is going to continue to vote, I ask the Minister as an Independent Deputy to sit down with a number of us to see if we can work out mechanisms that would help the residents who are going through so many problems. I ask the Minister to give that commitment to the House.