Promised pier funding no longer available

MONEY promised for harbour development in Baltimore has dried up.

More than €2.5m was announced, just weeks before the last general election, for a breakwater in the West Cork village which is also a RNLI lifeboat base.

But marine minister Pat The Cope Gallagher confirmed to Deputy Jim O’Keeffe that “due to budgetary constraints, there is no funding.”

The Fine Gael TD said yesterday: “The Government has plumbed the depths in its cynical arrogance towards the people of Baltimore and the islands and indeed towards all users of the harbour. Clearly, it had no intention at any stage of producing the monies promised before the election.”

He continued: “The approval of grant aid prior to the last election for the provision of a breakwater in Baltimore was a total sham.

“Just weeks before the 2002 election, the then Fianna Fáil minister for the marine, Frank Fahey announced he had approved €2.54m for the project.

The suggestion, now, of budgetary constraints is a sick joke in the light of funds presently available to the Exchequer.”

The Fine Gael frontbencher insisted: “There has been no Government investment in Baltimore for over 100 years, apart from the dredging monies, which I was able to allocate from the West Cork Package. The two piers were built in 1895 and 1907, long before independence.”

The need for harbour development in Baltimore, he said, was long recognised, he said. “Apart from broken promises, this Government has contributed nothing towards that development despite a whole range of diverse activity being carried on, either in the harbour or related to activities in the harbour. These include fishing, fish processing, ship repair and much leisure activity, including sailing, diving and angling.

“The harbour has a long established sailing club and two sailing schools while a lifeboat is also based in Baltimore.”

He added: “I am now demanding that funding be committed by this Government towards the development of Baltimore and that it is done without delay.”