Councillor Maria Byrne:

I thank everyone for their questions and comments. The first thing we need to do is recognise the fact that there are challenges. This was mentioned in many of the presentations. Certainly, we need to address them and examine them regionally and collectively. Recently we saw the appointment of a Minister of State with responsibility for a rural economic development and rural transport and that is positive because it is about creating balanced regional development. We need to examine that area. I come from what is predominantly an urban area but I have a small rural area in terms of my electorate as well and I can definitely see the difference between the two.

Reference was made to making a case to the Minister and his Department and what they will deliver. For each region it is important to have a city that is driving the entire area. If we can target some of our key cities and key areas then, in turn, they can target the region. It can be a big boost to a region to have a flourishing city. That is one thing I am keen to see realised.

Deputy O'Reilly raised the matter of broadband. Even within urban areas there are problems with broadband. I acknowledge it is not as bad as in rural areas but it is something in respect of which we need major investment.

My colleague referred to education. I have been a member of an education and training board for the past 15 years. We have a successful youth reach programme - it is in place in many areas - to address early dropouts. It is about encouraging people, especially if they have left school early, to go back to school. There should be more emphasis on encouraging adult education. It is great to see people going back to sit the junior certificate and leaving certificate regardless of their age. It is all about lifelong learning. We should keep that philosophy at the back of our minds.

The local enterprise offices were mentioned by several people. I was a member of what was the city enterprise board. Now we have local enterprise offices. There should be encouragement of private business influence to encourage people and we have started to do that in Limerick. We have started encouraging people from businesses to come in and make presentations on how they see things developing locally and in the region. We have had people in from the tourism industry, small businesses and SMEs. This is important and something that should be rolled out throughout the country. Many of the other issues have been covered so I will leave it at that.