Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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233. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to extend the pier at Killybegs Harbour in County Donegal, including if he has formally approved it, if he has allocated the required funding, its cost and the start and completion dates; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16551/16]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Killybegs Fishery Harbour Centre is one of the six designated Fishery Harbour Centres which are owned, managed and maintained by my Department under Statute.

My Department is currently progressing a project for a proposed pier extension at Smooth Point on the new pier at Killybegs Fishery Harbour Centre. At this point the project is focused on the feasibility, scoping, costing and the consent preparation stages of the project. Until these stages are suitably advanced it will not be possible to make any definitive decision on whether or not this project will proceed. A sum of €2.5 million has been provisionally allocated for this purpose as part of the Department’s Fishery Harbour and Coastal Infrastructure Development Programme 2016.

Killybegs has been attracting increasing levels of fishing, commercial cargo and cruise liner activity and a need has been identified, supported by key stakeholders for additional berthage. The proposed project would provide an additional 120m of sheltered berthage to a depth of -0.9m Chart datum in Killybegs FHC. In addition to facilitating the increased activity it would also enable relocating larger fishing vessels from the Blackrock Pier to the new berthage area.

The project would include the dredging of a quantity of silt, gravel and rock. In 2016 the first phase of the project includes a comprehensive site investigation and detailed design which when completed will give an estimation of final project costs, of course this will only be ultimately determined by market forces following a competitive tender process. No final decision to move the project to works phase has been made at this time.

As the Deputy is aware, all developments in the six Fishery Harbour Centres including this one are subject to available exchequer funding and competing priorities and a final decision to go to works will be made in that context.

A chemical re-evaluation of the sediments was carried out in 2015 and early 2016, as part of the current development proposal. Results currently indicate that at least 85% is suitable for disposal at sea, subject to EPA approval.

My Department intends to submit a Dumping At Sea Application to the Environmental Protection Agency as part of this project in the coming months. Any material that is determined to exceed the environmental standards set for sea disposal will not be dumped at sea. Other options are being considered should this arise, including disposal on land or other remediation measures. The issue of disposal of quantities of contaminated dredge spoil is a matter which is regularly encountered in marine dredging works. A variety of appropriate solutions exist to address such situations.