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Dáil
‹ Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation

Tipperary town task force

Summary

Deputy McGrath sought expansion of the Tipperary town task force and raised the possible loss of Ballykisteen golf course. The Tánaiste said the task force was operating and he would discuss any extension with the relevant Minister of State.

I have approached the Tánaiste many times about Tipperary town. The Government set up a task force under Ms Alison Harvey. I am asking that it be expanded to include hard-working groups in the town's hinterland. The Great National Hotels group is selling off the golf course in Ballykisteen at Limerick Junction. The Tánaiste has often been in its hotel there. If the course goes, the hotel will go. It is a focal point and important infrastructure in the region. We have nothing else like it. Will the Tánaiste ask the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin, to whom I have written, to intervene? The golf course could be kept. The captain of the golf club is Mr. Michael Lynch. Several groups want to retain this amenity. We are in the Covid pandemic and golf is an outdoor sport. The course is used considerably. We need the golf course and the hotel. We cannot lose this valuable piece of infrastructure. Will the Tánaiste intervene, please?

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Leo Varadkar The Tánaiste Fine Gael

I am not sure if I have been in that hotel or at that golf course. Maybe I have, but people over the past couple of weeks have been placing me in all sorts of places I have not been. Perhaps this is one of the latest examples, but that does not matter.

The task force has been established and its work is under way. Whether it can be extended to include the wider area is something about which I would have to speak to the Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Peter Burke. I will do so.

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