Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Funding of €13.9 million means that it is down 70% on the last programme, so that is not delivery to the people of west Cork or to Cork county. How is a programme to be rolled out in west Cork from the Aran Islands? That is what I want to know. Something does not add up here and I need an answer. I could write the answer for the Minister. It is on the website, and I have been speaking to a lovely person at the other end of the telephone. I do not want the Minister to get me wrong. She could not have been nicer. I do not want to discredit her, but they will not deliver. We need someone who knows the lie of the land in west Cork to deliver a programme for west Cork, and we have no one to do that. That is what we are facing in west Cork from what I heard this morning having contacted them. If I had not done that and had taken the information second hand, I would not speak about it here today. The Aran Islands will be delivering now for west Cork, where west Cork delivered for west Cork previously, and rightly so. The Minister has not mentioned the east Galway situation, and I asked her about it both in the Dáil and in this committee. Why are people being treated differently? Who could come up with this decision? It is a crisis in west Cork. The Minister is forgetting the people of west Cork and they do not deserve to be forgotten. It does not matter whether one is from Monaghan or anywhere else, one should be treated equally. The programme should have been delivered in west Cork by whoever but that will not be the case, and I want to know the reason.