Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Question 144: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs if he will report on the role of his Department in assisting the residents of Pollathomas, County Mayo a year after this community experienced significant landslides. [22900/04]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I would like to indicate that primary responsibility in this instance lies with my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

As the Deputy is aware, Pollathomas is a designated Gaeltacht area and, as Minister with responsibility for Gaeltacht Affairs, I have visited the area on a number of occasions. My Department, in co-operation with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the Office of Public Works has played an active role in providing additional assistance to Mayo Council County to enable them to complete necessary infrastructural repairs in the area. A total of €148,115 has been sanctioned by my Department to date for repair works to the graveyard, walls and roads in the area.

My Department is also represented on the Pollathomas implementation working group, which was set up in March 2004 and includes representatives of Mayo County Council, the Office of Public Works and the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government. The objective was to bring together representatives of the main bodies involved in dealing with the after effects of the Pollathomas landslides with a view to bringing the outstanding issues to finality. I understand that the working group's report will be available in the near future.