I ask the Leader of the House to convey to the Minister for the Marine the need to investigate, draw up plans and provide funding for a slipway at Bunaneer, close to where the Anascaul river flows into Dingle Bay at Anascaul, County Kerry. The parish of Anascaul has a population of about 1,000 people and the parish derives its name from the River Anascaul which flows into Dingle Bay at Bunaneer. By sea, Bunaneer is about 13 miles from Dingle and in that stretch of coastline there is only one landing place which is at Minard Castle. At Bunaneer there are five boats using the existing facilities, three of them to fish part time during the summer months. The only landing facility there is a channel cut into the rock which is believed to have been done at the time of the famine. During my lifetime local people have endeavoured to fish from here under extremely difficult conditions, and fishing time has been reduced because of a lack of reasonable facilities.
In the old days canoes were used which were easier to handle when it came to landing. Nowadays, bigger boats with engines find it almost impossible to land. A slipway here would be used to full advantage by the people of Anascaul thereby creating up to 20 jobs during the summer months or for at least five or six months of the year at lobster fishing. There is a coastline here of at least five miles where lobster fishing is not being exploited due to the lack of landing facilities.
The people in the parish of Anascaul are taking full advantage of tourism. They are also taking full advantage of the fact that this is where Tom Crean of the South Pole fame came to retire after his many exploits and expeditions and it is also the parish where the famous sculptor Mr. Jerome O'Connor was born. A slipway at Bunaneer would be an added amenity and a further boost to tourism for the people of Anascaul. Various organisations and individuals have been making representations to me for a number of years to try to get a reasonable job done at this location. I would now ask the Minister for the Marine to investigate and do a costing with a view to providing the necessary finance for this development.