Jim D'Arcy (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests from the Special EU Programmes Body. I had a great week at Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Derry where the new Peace Bridge has become an iconic structure and has delivered great benefits to the city. I congratulate the Special EU Programmes Body on its role in that project. I hope a new bridge at Narrow Water will be just as iconic for the south Down and north Louth areas. As well as economic benefits, such projects also deliver higher order benefits. Major funding issues have arisen for the Narrow Water Bridge project, which the Special EU Programmes Body fully supports and in which it has played a helpful role. I hope the problems will be resolved in the coming weeks.

On PEACE IV, I share the concerns expressed about the concepts of additionality and substitution and hope they will not apply. While I do not often differ with Deputy Brendan Smith on many issues, I disagree with him slightly on one issue. Statistics show that educational attainment is significantly lower than the national average in the Border counties of Louth, Monaghan, Cavan, Leitrim, Donegal and, to a lesser extent, Sligo. The same statistics show that unemployment is higher than the national average in these counties. Moreover, a very high score in the deprivation index is recorded in most electoral areas and hinterland of the gateway towns of Dundalk, Sligo and Letterkenny and the hub town of Cavan. These high scores can be largely ascribed to the educational needs of these areas where the number of people who complete third level education is very low in some cases. I hope consideration will be given to the possibility of providing additional Government investment in education in these areas in conjunction with the institutes of technology.

I would also like PEACE IV funding to be provided for the development of second language skills. On a recent visit to Manchester, I was driven to a football match by a Greek taxi driver. In a discussion about our families, he told me his two daughters, both of whom had degrees and spoke two foreign languages, were working with him. According to my driver, every child in Greece learns two foreign languages. Most of the people employed by PayPal, National Pen and other companies located in Dundalk are recruited abroad because Irish people do not have the language skills required to deal with foreign customers on the telephone. For this reason, I would welcome any initiative to use PEACE IV funding for the purposes of foreign language acquisition. I thank our guests for appearing before us for this very interesting engagement.