Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations and for taking the trouble to come here today. I found the discussion very informative. I do not have many questions. I suspect my colleagues have further questions. The Wheel raised points about match funding, the application and reporting systems, the bureaucracy involved in these applications, the need to involve the community sector more, an extension to the community sector, and the need for a scale-up fund. The witnesses are obviously here today to make that case. What actions have they taken to advance those points that they want to make to improve these funding streams? The president of the European Court of Auditors is coming into us in the next fortnight. Every year, we raise with him the level of bureaucracy involved in funding and, every year, he gives us an answer. I cannot quite remember the answer but obviously nothing changes. We will certainly raise that with him again when he comes in the next week or two.

Is The Wheel's campaign for these improvements something that we need to do here in Leinster House and Government Buildings or do we need to do it in Brussels? Maybe it is a combination of both. On the regional assemblies and the cohesion funding, there are clear structures in place. I found what the witnesses outlined here today very informative. Dublin has a certain level of economic development. Cohesion funding for it within the State may or may not be as important as it would be to some of the other regions in the country. How fares Dublin in relation to EU funding generally? Obviously, we have extreme disadvantage in Dublin city. Does Dublin do well in these funding streams? I am not going to ask how proactive the local authorities are. I will leave that to others.