Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. I welcome the witnesses. I have known Mr. Beades and Ms Earley for a while. RSS, which all of the witnesses have spoken about, is one of the most successful schemes in the country. It is welcome that 500 places have been announced, but we need to move on and up the ante in terms of the number of places. I am a firm believer that is no good to pay someone at home if he or she can be doing some good out in the community. That is the way forward.

In the Tús and community employment schemes, it has got to the point that one does not know where to ring. One does not know who is handling things. There could be two or three bodies handling the matter about which one is calling. We need to do some tying up in that respect because it is all over the shop. Any Deputy might ring one place and be told to ring another. It is different in every county as Deputies who cover more than one will have found.

Some counties have towns teams and then we have the rural regeneration. Some local authorities have opted to pick five or six particular towns. This is not to begrudge any of them, but I have a feeling that the money is being sent to those towns while forgetting about other areas in a county. Where a Leader group has money for a playground for children, that can also be done under regeneration. Where is the joined-up thinking? Is there any or are the witnesses being given a certain group of things to deal with? I welcome the witnesses from Galway and ask them the following.

Am I correct in stating that there have been problems in the past year and that there will be a court case? Would it be fair to say that Galway will probably not have Leader funding for 18 months to two years? Would it be fair to say that with all the rigmarole that has gone on about Leader in the past two years in County Roscommon, it will be May before the people who have their tongues out for trying to get things off the ground can draw down money? For two and a half years they have been going around the world and back again. Rural communities need to go forward and create employment and that is not happening.

Mr. Noel Spillane mentioned the duplication of paperwork. What percentage of the total funding for the programme is spent on each group or individual doing their bit to make it foolproof? He said that one would swear it was forensic accounting.

I know the Burren in County Clare worked on a locally led scheme. I think the Department still handles that. But there may be an opportunity for different groups to use this model. Deputy Ó Cuív made the point earlier what it takes for business to get off the ground and he mentioned the McHales of Mayo. They set up this iconic business in a small shed years ago. There is a great deal of manufacturing in the west. I am aware of the serious problems that must be overcome to get planning permission in Galway as 80% of the land west of the Corrib is designated lands. Is this stalling enterprises from getting projects off the ground on that side of Galway? Do all the small and medium sized businesses availing of Leader funding meet up as a group, or meet the representatives of Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland to see what they are doing or is everybody at present heading off in their own direction?

On tourism - and this is my final question-----