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

It is very true. I can state that categorically on behalf of the people of west Cork in my constituency. We in west Cork have been long suffering, and I made the Minister aware of this in recent weeks.

I have a number of questions to which I would like answers. The more I hear from other Deputies on the committee, and the more that Leader companies have attended joint committee meetings in the past six to eight weeks, the more I realise that there needs to be an independent investigation into this whole affair. It stinks from start to finish. It is bad practice. It is an embarrassment for any Department to be standing over the process that has gone on here. I have a number of questions.

I come from a constituency, Cork South-West, that has taken many serious hits in recent years. I am passionate about my people and about west Cork I am passionate to deliver and this is not delivery. This is a blow to west Cork beyond all belief. It is true in the previous Government that Garda stations, banks and post offices closed, there were massive farm penalties and fishermen were thrown out of their waters, so to speak, but the bottom line was that we had a shinning light, a Leader company that delivered an honest and clear programme to the people of west Cork, and now it has been taken off the pitch. There are no real answers, no matter what way one turns it.

I mean no disrespect to the Minister personally but I have not yet heard a reasonable reason as to why it was taken off. It delivered clear and honest programmes. I believe it was taken out of commission because it was honest.

I have a number of questions, and I know it will be difficult for the Minister to answer them right now because there are quite a lot of questions, but they are very relevant. The first question is about the scores. Could they be made available from each of the 28 areas where decisions were made and will the Minister kindly publish them? The local development strategies were to be designed through public consultation but in west Cork it was done by consultants. Will the Minister indicate why this was necessary? Cork County Council had three implementing partners supporting its bid so why were two teams of consultants engaged by the council, including one from the Minister's own constituency? Perhaps the Minister could explain how they were selected and at what cost. Why did Pobal not provide scores for the evaluation of the last west Cork bid? Was this done in all of the other 28 areas? These are very serious questions that need answers.

Why has the EU Commission now confirmed that it will investigate a second complaint from the West Cork Development Partnership with regard to irregularities in the local action group, LAG, selection? What type of process leaves the West Cork Development Partnership, whose strategy was the highest scoring in the last programme, as the only LAG with no roll-out in this current programme? Will the Minister indicate if all strategies that have been selected by the Department will be published publicly, and when this will happen? The information on the programme delivery arrangements for west Cork is very patchy. I said this to the Minister last week and she seemed to be caught by surprise, and I do not have as many officials around me as she does. The programme is now going to be delivered from the Aran Islands. I mean no disrespect to the islanders but the people who deliver the programme are from the Aran Islands. I have spoken to them myself and that is what they have told me. The local community development committee is set up in west Cork and it must try to roll out a programme, as the development partnerships have previously done, but one needs to have the people on the ground and they need to be from west Cork. They need to have experience in rolling out a programme, as the West Cork Development Partnership had rolled out that excellent programme over the past 20 to 25 years. We all know it did the Fuchsia Brand. It was untouchable with regard to partnerships. It is now untouchable because someone in the Department did not want it and I would like to know why.