Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 30 March 2023

Public Accounts Committee

Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 42 - Rural and Community Development
Report of the Accounts of the Public Services 2021
Chapter 6: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities

9:30 am

Photo of Brian StanleyBrian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Is anyone in the Department aware of that? I do not mean to be smart about it but that may be worth looking at. In the Six Counties, the economy is not that different. Belfast is the largest city, Derry is a smaller city, then there are a number of other large towns such as Omagh and other different places with populations of between 30,000 and 50,000 or 60,000. I ask that it be looked at. Could we approach this on an all-island basis? Hopefully, if the Executive is back up and running and the North-South Ministerial Council is meeting, there will be more interaction between officials from here and the North. The witnesses will be aware of the work that has been done over the past 20 years on the Border corridor. There were significant links between Fermanagh, Sligo, Cavan, Donegal, Derry and so on, right along the Border. That might be looked at. That is the issue I wanted to ask about.

On developing it further, Ms Hurley said she has considered this and officials have looked at it. Is there much input from Ministers? Have the witnesses been asked to drive this politically? Has it been flagged as an issue? Have they decided to look at it themselves? Where is the community wealth building issue coming from?