Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I do not see how the local libraries in my area would be suitable because there is public access in and out of them all of the time and there is not space, in general. Mohill is a town near to where I live. The old vocational school building in Mohill has lain idle for years. I approached the vocational education committee about allowing a community project to use the building but the VEC said, "Oh, no. We had an experience of that before. We let community projects in and we could not get them out." That is the kind of attitude one is up against. I agree with the direction outlined by the Minister of State.

Let us say that a community in a small town or village owns a building, and many of these buildings are in disrepair. Let us say a community wants a hub set up in a building. How many work spaces are necessary to make the project viable? Is it work space for ten or 20 people?

Let us say a community agrees to do this tomorrow, meet on Friday night and submit an application on Friday week. To whom do they send their application? Where is the money going to come from? How quickly can this be done? I take the point that was made earlier. I know about "Kilty Live" as I was involved with setting it up and I understand what the people of that community did. We are trying to do the same in my parish but the problem is we do not have houses and there are no houses for rent anywhere. Sometimes the reality on the ground is different and we need to imagine what that is like. We need to be proactive and come up with imaginative ways forward. We really need to have a very set line on how to achieve this. I know that the Minister of State is a man that can do that and I encourage him to come up with a solution.