Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Frank Fahey, has strongly defended two projects he approved when minister of the marine and has said the record with regard to the marinas needed to be corrected in the recent Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report.
Mr Fahey said that decisions taken by the government in 2000 regarding funding of four marina projects were completely in line with the objectives of the Department of Marine and Natural Resources.
Two weeks ago he was strongly criticised by the PAC for approving grant aid for four marinas.
The projects were in Kenmare, Cahirciveen, Roundstone and Rosses Point.
Mr Fahey, in a statement at the weekend, said the four projects were carefully evaluated by department officials following his decision to approve grants in principle as a result of the 2000 budget announcements.
"The statement that Cahirciveen is in a precarious financial position which is not sustainable in the long-term is incorrect. The Cahirciveen marina relied on the contribution of approximately €500,000 from local people, some of whom owned small boats. The project had been profitable for the past two years and is now generating significant income for the local economy," he said.
"I believe 90 per cent of people who leased berths from the local community company have small boats or no boats at all," Mr Fahey said.
The idea that the Kenmare project was incomplete, was in fact, six years out of date, he added.
In the case of the Kenmare sailing centre "some €3.3 million had been invested by the local promoter in the project which now employs 20 people, and had been successful in the attraction of Irish and foreign visitors that it is now necessary to increase the capacity of the facility," he argued.
It was necessary to give approval of grant aid in principal to local promoters to enable the costly planning and verification process to proceed and also to raise the considerable local contributions that were required, he said.
It was for this reason that the Government decided to approve, in principal, grant aid for four projects subject to a rigorous evaluation by the department, he added
"Significant progress was made by officials in the department who carried out a thorough evaluation of the projects to ensure the technical, planning and financial requirements were met until I left the department in June 2002."
He said that although the project at Rosses Point did not proceed due to the fact that Sligo County Council could not comply with the conditions laid down by the department, the marinas at Cahirciveen and Kenmare had been completed and were operating very successfully.
He added that the Roundstone project was now also proceeding with 55 per cent grant aid, subject to final departmental approval in conjunction with Department of Finance sanction.
"The success of the two projects completed and the final approval of Roundstone, following seven years of trial and effort . . . would not have happened had this funding measure not been provided," he said.
"I am pleased that the two Kerry projects have been completed successfully and that the Roundstone project, subject to final approval, will shortly proceed. I believe the onus in now on Deputy Noonan [chairman of the PAC] to correct the record in this respect."
The development group Acard responsible for the Cahirciveen marina issued a statement rejecting criticisms and saying that in its short life the marina had hosted a number of prestigious angling and yachting events. An extension for the marina would be needed shortly, it said.