Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Senator is quite correct in what he says about ambition. That is why we have asked for collaboration. We have allowed local authorities, LEADER companies, State agencies and Fáilte Ireland to collaborate with groups. The Senator has asked a question. We want to get projects that involve collaboration. We do not want to fund projects that do not have a chance. That is why the evaluation committee is there. We have to fund projects that have a chance. In every walk of life, there will be things that work very well. Regardless of what business one is in, one will come across good ideas that may not work. We do not mind taking some risks. The evaluation committee has to make a decision. It has to look at what will happen if funding is provided for a project. Will it be sustainable in the future? Will employment be created from it in the future? Will it need further funding from somebody else at a later stage? All of this is considered.

Senator Coffey spoke about a development in his own county. I have not looked at it yet. All I am saying is that it will be very carefully looked at. The committee will look at the criteria, at whether it is sustainable, at what it will do for communities and at what it will do for jobs. I have to mention the work done by the evaluation committee on the last occasion. The Senator is quite correct. I want to make it clear that the standard of applications this time has been a big improvement on the last time. To be fair, people know now what is expected of them. My officials went out to talk to people and to go through these matters with them. I have to say it is fantastic that we have so many applications. Applications worth €169 million have been received in a very short period since we allocated the funding in February. We have funded projects from €500,000 upwards. We look at each application. We have funded projects up to €10 million. We have funded projects of €3 million, €2 million, €330,000, €969,000 and €845,000. We look at each case. The big thing is the collaboration with State agencies, local authorities, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, Fáilte Ireland and LEADER companies. When they submit their applications, they have a great deal of groundwork done to make sure they are sustainable. That is the whole issue. They have to be sustainable. I will explain what we do not want. The Senator will recall that several years ago, the big fad was the development of community centres.

Some were fantastic but then everybody in the audience had to have one. As a result, we had three in places that were within a two or three-mile radius. Now, it is only the ones that were really needed that are surviving while the others are not.

Senator Hopkins asked about the walks scheme first. We have opened the walks scheme again. I got an extra €2 million this year. We have received 59 expressions of interest and there are 979 landowners. I hope to announce the first phase of successful applicants shortly. The scheme is fantastic and is run well by my Department. Again, funding is key. I will not close the walks scheme. I will shortly announce the names of the successful applicants. There was a lot of work involved with assessing whether applications were value for money and, therefore, would receive funding. The good news is that the scheme is open, we had €2 million but we got €2 million so we will have €4 million. The scheme will be left open to receive expressions of interest and we will assess it on a year-to-year basis.

The Senator talked about the rural regeneration scheme and I agree with her. I visited Castlerea and Athleague in County Roscommon where I saw that people appreciated the funding that the Department gave to different projects. I visited the food hub in Castlerea, where I witnessed the enthusiasm of the people involved, as well as by their commitment and development ambitions.

The Senator mentioned the shortage of chefs and how people in the region are getting employment. Recently I visited the Mayo Abbey Training Centre to present certificates to 14 or 15 chefs who participated in a 12 or 13-week programme. The common denominator between the chefs is that every single one of them got a job on completion of the course and that might be lesson for the education sector and everybody else. One needs to train people to meet demand. In this country there is at present a demand for chefs, good quality food and digital hubs. In my own town and county, we set up a digital hub that has a queue of people seeking to avail of. I know of one person who runs her business from the hub and recently she won a contract from a major multinational to pay out its wages. She is doing that work from a town in rural Ireland. Broadband will be a game changer. We need high-speed broadband to be rolled out to every rural community in order that people can work from home. Many multinational companies have said they will be able to create more jobs and people can work from their homes when we have high-speed broadband, which needs to be rolled out.

As for the CLÁR programme, I have been blamed for its success. I was allocated €5 million in the budget and for the last few years due to making savings I allocated a further amount of money. Recently I had to put in place categories. The largest category is the support for schools but there is also community safety, play areas and community welfare. I also set up a number of other schemes, such as support for first responders in terms of ambulances and established sensory gardens. I want to fund sections of society that will not secure funding from elsewhere. I want to give them an opportunity where there is demand and a need. Last year, due to extra funding, I funded more projects. This year I did not have the same amount of funding because, despite what was said by some Deputies in certain political parties, 100% of the budget for my capital programme was spent last year. While 99% of the funding for our current programme has been spent, we made savings on services that we were using with another Department. Originally we thought we would have to pay funding for services but then we did not have to, so we saved €1.4 million and we saved money due to a reduced need for staff. Every single penny of the capital programme was spent and 99% of the current programme has been spent so it is a great success.

I have spoken about the tidy towns competition and Senator Hopkins is quite correct. I have witnessed what the competition does for communities and for this country. We do not thank or give the deserved recognition to the organisers and volunteers for the fantastic work that they do.

The Senator spoke about the Western Development Commission. To be fair to the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, he was not here. He is present now so he might add to what I say. The commission has a new CEO who is a very good person. He is doing very well and is going in new directions. We have a new board and more staff have been employed. A new five-year strategy development plan for 2019 to 2024 has been put in place called "Work Smarter, Live Better". Perhaps my Minister of State will comment and I thank him for coming. As I said earlier, he was delayed because he had to respond to questions in the Dáil.