Cecilia Keaveney (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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Question 401: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the efforts which will be made to assist the RNLI access at a location (details supplied) in County Donegal; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10287/05]

Pat Gallagher (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The incident that the Deputy refers to occurred off Buncrana slipway when a car was pushed into the water. It was not known initially that the car was unoccupied. When tasked by Malin Head coastguard, the RNLI local operations manager selected the inshore lifeboat to respond to the incident. The RNLI says it decided to use the inshore lifeboat instead of the all-weather lifeboat due to the prevailing depth of water at spring low tide. The RNLI has confirmed, however, that the selection of the inshore lifeboat did not delay the arrival time on scene.

The Department provided funding of €127,500 for Donegal County Council in 2004 towards the dredging of Buncrana harbour costing a total of €170,000. The county council also requested the Department to provide for the carry-over to 2005 of the allocation unspent in 2004 to complete the dredging. The question of providing Exchequer funding in the current year to complete the dredging at Buncrana harbour will be considered in the context of the amount of Exchequer funding available and overall national priorities.