Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There had been a recognition that as well as needing SICAP, areas of concentrated disadvantage had such concentrated problems that further action was needed across government but somewhere down the line - in 2011 or 2012 - the Department of Rural and Community Development decided to stop the programme that was specifically focused in those areas. I do not blame the Department because it was a purely political decision. The idea behind the programme in question - the RAPID programme, which was led by the Department but was across every Department - was that you picked out the really deprived communities, and would not budge an inch outside. All of the Departments were then put under the chairpersonship of the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Minister, and heads were banged together cross-departmentally. It was led by Mr. Mulherin's Department.

Here is what I am trying to get at. The big problem in government is that even though there is only one Government, the Departments act in silos. It is natural because of the way their budgets come, but it is a problem. This was an effort for one Department to lead in breaking the silo and smashing it. Somebody got the idea to smash the programme. If it is not working as we are doing it, then worthy as SICAP and the others are, some Department, which seems to be Mr. Mulherin's, has to go back to look at the metrics and say it is not working. He is right to point out we have all of these individual programmes. However, the point is that somebody has to lead it. There have to be concentrated support mechanisms for these areas of greatest deprivation, which are a blight on our country because of the way we leave people. When I say a blight on our country I mean it, because we just do not give people a fair crack of the whip.