Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

For ten years I have met a common perception that rural development industries are very cheap. Everyone understands that if one gets an Intel it represents millions of euro, but it is thought that down the country it is dead cheap to create jobs and we can do it for €5,000 here and €20,000 there. Having done the job, I can tell the committee it is not cheap to create jobs. If anyone tells me they can create jobs at €3,000 a punt I always tell them that if it were that cheap there would be no need for the grant in the first place. If the money will be that small it would be much better to constrain it to the areas of greatest need and ensure we have something decent for a few people, rather than spreading the jam so thin that nobody will get any.