Ms M?ire Henry:

I offer my sincere thanks. I have really enjoyed this experience. We need to continue supporting expenditure that helps revitalise cities, towns and villages across Ireland. There are many good examples of this happening, which is fantastic.

On the four-year period, I agree that it would be great to see a shorter term, if possible. It sometimes takes 20 years to change a region. A very local example is the Waterford Viking Triangle, which was recently featured in The New York Timesas the only place to visit in Waterford. That took 25 years of master planning and regeneration plans, but there was a vision there. As a result, when public funds became available, there was a project, sometimes very small, sometimes very large, that became an essential piece of the jigsaw. I thank the committee for its support.