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

It is up to my boss. It is not up to me personally, unfortunately.

The Minister has abolished the revitalising areas by planning, investment and development, RAPID, programme. Other than Dublin north inner city, what programmes are there specifically to deal with the issues of intense social deprivation in what were the RAPID areas, which were the most deprived areas in the country and which were all urban communities? In reality, despite the talk of booming cities and the challenges in rural Ireland, the most deprived communities in this State, socially, economically, and under quality of life and all other indicators, are exclusively urban communities.

My further question, which the Minister has touched on himself, is on the community services programme. In recent years, before he took over the programme, an increasing divergence has taken place between the grant that was paid for wages and the minimum wage. That has meant that the companies have had to top-up out of their own resources funding to pay the wage bill. That was not the position up to 2014. This is a phenomenon of 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. In 2018, every worker has to be subsidised by €2,000. For such programmes as meals on wheels, that is an impossible burden. I accept that some of the companies have good income streams, and the Minister and I know of a number of these. Will the Minister revert back to the payment of the 100% wage grant in the case of those companies that provide vital social services that the State would otherwise have to provide, that have a very marginal income and perhaps charge €5 for a dinner?

I am very pleased to hear that more money is being put into what was the RAPID programme and into community facilities of €8.6 million. Has the Minister mature liabilities for all of that money?