Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to hear the Deputy being honest. He is right that more people are living and working in rural Ireland than ever before. He is also right about towns and villages. The shops that were there in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s are gone. They were challenged by multinational companies such as Dunnes Stores and Tesco and those that are left are being challenged by online retail, which is causing a difficulty. The pilot scheme for Ballinrobe was intended as an example of what could be done to regenerate a town. We provided €1,100,000 in the recent rural regeneration and development fund project to be used exactly as the Deputy described. We are trying to regenerate the town centre and the market houses. We provided funding as part of the town and village renewal scheme and the outdoor recreation infrastructure scheme.

The Deputy knows that Ballinrobe is a fantastic town with a fantastic racecourse and golf club. The one thing that is missing is a hotel. As the Deputy knows, there were three applications but none ever came to fruition. That is a pity because we could have done with a hotel in the town. I remember holding clinics in Belmullet, a town the Deputy knows well, in my early days in politics when one would hardly find somewhere to get a cup of tea. Now there are two hotels that are doing fantastically well. They provide a great service for weddings, funerals and so on and have given the town a great lift. Ballinrobe has been chosen as a pilot for the rural regeneration and development fund to show how a town can be regenerated. There is a great future for the town with its community group and young people.

The Deputy made a very interesting point when he spoke of mapping what was in Ballinrobe in earlier times. When I think about my home town of Westport, families in the town have carried on. Sons, daughters and in-laws have modernised family businesses and some have moved to different businesses. The Hughes family established one of the most successful companies in the world, let alone Ireland. The company operates out of Westport and trades all over the world as a multinational company. The Kavanagh Group, which is based in the town, runs a hotel business and is involved in the tourism sector and supermarket business. It modernises every year and keeps ahead of the posse. I am working on Ballinrobe and hope we can give the town the support and back-up it needs.

The local area groups, LAGs, get 25% of the LEADER funding to meet administrative costs. Deputy Ó Cuív knows what happens with administrative costs.

I know the administrative costs for last year and this year. They might be a bit more than the actual project.