Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)

I am grateful for the opportunity to ask a brief supplementary question. In the case of Achill Island, for example, it is difficult for local communities to develop any proper tourism product. Notwithstanding his particular interest in the west, I am not sure whether the Minister is aware of the difficulties in this regard. Some wonderful projects have been lost to Achill Island because of the difficulty encountered by local communities because they cannot, for example, compete with private sector interests to purchase land.

In most other EU states, local authorities have a far greater input into these types of projects. Under EU rules, a certain portion of funding must be secured from the local community but many communities simply cannot bear that load. In some cases, however, the local authority has come in and resolved the difficulty. Will the Minister examine how local authorities might be encouraged to assist local communities in developing worthwhile tourism projects? Otherwise they will not happen.

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