Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte anseo roimh na scoláirí freisin. I thank the Minister of State for that response. There is nothing new in it bar the last paragraph, and we had heard rumours to that effect. While I appreciate it is at a commercially sensitive point, I ask the Minister of State for assurance that there will be a Plan B, should Plan A fall through on this site. I also ask that there be communication from the OPW to the Coast Guard in Courtown. They are looking for certainty that something is going to happen. I do not want to have to come back to this House in six months, pose the same Commencement matter to the Minister of State, and get the same three or four pages except the last paragraph will say that the commercial negotiations fell through and we are back looking for another site. As he will have seen, the county council identified a number of sites and they were no longer available. That is primarily because the OPW did not go after those sites. The sites do not sit around waiting for the OPW. I ask that they be more proactive. I welcome that negotiations are going on, but I request that the Minister of State's office keep in touch with the Coast Guard locally to inform it that there is significant progress.