Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Ó Muilleoir and it is good to have a member of the Northern Ireland Executive attend our committee. Like my colleague, Deputy Breathnach, I want to raise the funding issue. Mr. Ó Muilleoir's comments alarm me. The people he referred to have done Trojan work in their communities and some local statutory agencies were very good at assisting local communities in drawing down funding that has been put to very good use. We have a vacuum now. We have uncertainty, and it will do great damage to the community ethos and spirit of trying to draw down very valuable and much-needed funding for so many areas that are very severely disadvantaged and need the injection of capital for social enterprise or the provision of local community facilities, be it of a social nature or of small business interest.

After reading remarks that were attributed to Mr. Ó Muilleoir in the Irish News, I tabled a parliamentary question and, like my colleague, Deputy Breathnach, I received an assurance, as I saw it, from the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, that the funding would be in place. Mr. Ó Muilleoir said, "However, I would respectfully suggest that their efforts need to be matched by the Irish Government, the British Government and the EU Commission." I sincerely hope the Government is committed to meeting the expenditure that has been provided for in the programme. I have no reason to believe it is not. Perhaps Mr. Ó Muilleoir could elaborate. I sincerely hope there would not be a shortfall here or any uncertainty setting in.

The Minister mentioned some of the iconic projects. Some of us from the Oireachtas were at the official opening of Skainos Centre in east Belfast. I have walked the Peace bridge in Derry on many occasions. They are all very good projects and we want to see more of them on both sides of the Border. It is scandalous if the British Government is already ensuring this unnecessary uncertainty is setting in to damage projects we need to bring to fruition after so much good work undertaken by so many people in a voluntary capacity, and local statutory agencies which have never got enough funding to carry out their work at local level. I welcome the Minister's presentation.