Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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2007. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the status of stage 3 of the development of An Caladh Mór on Inis Meáin; and the schedule of works for An Caladh Mór; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29173/22]

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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2013. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the status of stage 3 of the development of An Caladh Mór on Inis Meáin; the schedule of works for An Caladh Mór; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29608/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 2007 and 2013 together.

The Development of the Caladh Mór Pier on Inis Meáin is included in the National Development Plan. As the Deputy will be aware, Galway County Council is responsible for the development of stage 3 of this project. 

As part of the preparatory works, the National Maritime College of Ireland (NMCI) was instructed by Galway County Council to develop a model simulation for the harbour. Galway County Council has collated the technical specifications of the key vessels that use the harbour and this data will be fed into the simulation. It is hoped that the simulation will be completed, and tested with feedback given, by the end of August. 

To feed into this process, additional bathymetric studies are also to be carried out in the harbour to gather further data. This will be a multi-beam mapping survey, which will be highly detailed, but requires suitable conditions to be carried out. Galway County Council advised my Department at a meeting between officials last week that, due to unsettled weather and marine conditions, the bathymetric survey has not yet been completed. It is hoped that conditions will settle in the next week or so, allowing for completion of the survey.  

Once this work has been completed, Galway County Council will incorporate the findings into a draft business case. Following on from this, my Department will be in a position to evaluate the next steps in the process.