Question No. 13.

Arising out of the Minister's reply when he said that ships 120 feet long are now coming in and these have to be catered for——

Would the Deputy repeat that? I could not hear him.

Arising out of the Minister's reply when he said that ships are now getting bigger and it is more difficult to accommodate them, surely he is aware of the ferryboat at Burtonport which cannot go to Aranmore Island because there is no harbour there and that ship is only 50 feet long?

In that instance there are local factors with regard to the improvement works concerned that could not have been foreseen by anybody.

Is the Minister telling the House seriously that his Department bought a boat which could not berth in Aranmore Island and that no one could have foreseen that?

I am not saying that.

What is the Minister saying?

When contractors are difficult to get, when somebody undertakes to do a job and subsequently does not do it, nobody can foresee items like that cropping up.

Is the Minister seriously telling the House that it was blindness on the part of the Department of Fisheries and Forestry that they could not foresee that a berth was needed at Aranmore Island to accomodate a 50-foot boat acting as a ferryboat between the mainland and Aranmore Island and now, after almost three years of Fianna Fáil Government, not one other item has been dealt with? It is a shame. The whole lot of them are a laughing stock.

There is nothing on the Order Paper about Aranmore Island.

It is the joke of the tourist season when visitors come to the area.

I am sure the Deputy did not foresee three years of Fianna Fáil Government.