Mike Kennelly (Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State for the reply. It is very unfortunate that this is my third time to get the same response on the floor of the Seanad, and I am probably getting the same response from Kerry County Council. The Minister of State said we will all work together, but obviously some are not pulling together. If Kerry County Council is blaming the OPW and the OPW is blaming Kerry County Council, where do the people in the area stand? It is not fair to stand up again and say it is Kerry County Council’s problem when it is saying it is the OPW’s.

I realise the Minister of State has been in the job for only a couple of months and that he is probably working on the problem, and I really value his word on it, but I am getting the same response today that I got four months ago. We are heading towards September and the winter period but no one knows who is telling the truth. I ask that the Minister of State’s Department contact Kerry County Council this minute or that Kerry County Council contact the Department so both can sit down in the next 24 hours to come up with a start date for the works.

There is a job finishing in Listowel at the moment through the OPW. The promise was that it would move the staff and contractors down to the banks of the River Feale that burst in order to do the works. I do not know whether that promise was real. I ask that the Minister of State contact Kerry County Council today and come to a conclusion on this. What is happening is not on.