Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I promise to keep to time. In Limerick on Monday last, my colleagues in Sinn Fein, Councillors John Costello and Sharon Benson, called an emergency meeting to deal with the crisis in Shannon Heritage and, specifically, the decision to close iconic sites such as King John’s Castle in Limerick and Bunratty Castle at the end of August. This was a disastrous decision. The councillors received great cross-party support, not only for insisting on keeping those sites open but also, more significantly, on calling for the transfer of those sites from Shannon Group management to the Office of Public Works. I call for an urgent debate on this issue and for the Leader to ensure that a such debate takes place before the recess because these sites will have been closed by the time we return in September. They are absolutely crucial to the tourism offering across the mid-west. From speaking to the employees at King John’s Castle, they feel they have been let down. I would use the word "betrayal" to describe how they feel with regard to what has happened to them. These are people on the front line of our tourism offering. They have given years of service and are now being told that they are effectively being discarded. They do not even know for how long this will be. Their union, SIPTU, tells me that there is a complete lack of engagement on the part of the management of Shannon Group.

It strikes me and the many other people that these iconic sites would do much better under the Office of Public Works. I am calling directly for Government intervention by the Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy O’Donovan, on this issue in order to ensure that funding is supplied so that these sites can remain open after August and that an orderly transfer to the Office of Public Works takes place.