Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Tánaiste for being with us. I hope I can be heard over the bells that are ringing. They will only give me a headache and it is good to know I can be heard over them. I have a few questions. My time is tight and I apologise in advance as I will have to leave to speak in the Chamber shortly.

With regard to the Enterprise Ireland funding, there was unspent capital in 2020; a capital appropriation of €40 million was carried over to be used specifically to help smaller counties but it cannot be used to help counties in the Border, midlands and western region. I have been advised in replies to parliamentary questions that Offaly has only 63 supported companies, Laois has 52, Sligo has 74 and Leitrim has only 23. To take one of two examples of the volume of funding involved, the Tánaiste will note Leitrim is getting €117,079, Sligo is getting €707,044 and so on. Those are not large amounts of money. Are there any plans or could consideration be given to diverting some of that money? When one looks at the picture of the allocations on a map, the counties in that region seem to be disproportionately disadvantaged. I would not suggest taking money from another county but given that €40 million has been carried over, would it be possible to distribute that to the Border, midlands and western region?