Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In response to what Deputy Ó Cuív said, I have been involved in community development all my life. A strategic decision made somewhere to take community development out of the community and put it into local authorities and partnerships. That was fine, and some of them have worked very well but, in some ways, it has removed that link with the community. I will provide the example of the Dublin 15 area. We had community development workers in community centres working on the ground, and the then decision was made to withdraw them to office work, and a connection was then lost. It coincided with the diminution of RAPID and AIM.

The question I wish to ask relates to the Mulvey report on the regeneration of the Dublin north inner city, for which €6.5 million has been allocated. It goes some way back to RAPID, because the north inner city is a very disadvantaged area. I read a recent report on Darndale, written by Jack Nolan, who is a retired assistant Garda Commissioner. It is a very similar situation to the north inner city where there have been serious issues with gangland murders. Darndale is close to my heart because I worked in Coolock for almost 19 years, I know the place really well, and I knew some of the young people who were killed last year. I am wondering how the funding was allocated to implement the recommendations of the Nolan report. When I read the report on Darndale, I did not see a reference to a co-ordinating group. There are many tasks for different agencies, but I could not see one group to oversee the work. However, there is a co-ordinating group in respect of the Mulvey report, and €6.5 million has been allocated to it. How does that happen? How does one group get €6.5 million and another not?