Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)

The Minister has stated that no €2 billion was promised on the record. If that is the case, how much money was promised? It was disingenuous of him to suggest that I was proposing that the RAPID programme should be done away with. Labour Party policy is to go for €3.5 billion with special emphasis being put on those regions within the RAPID areas in which the problems are particularly concentrated. That is what is being proposed in the Labour Party document. Incidentally, the preparatory work has been done and the Labour Party is not suggesting we reinvent the wheel. It is a question of putting the money in place to implement the proposals and do what needs to be done. It is an issue of resources and the Labour Party is promising that in government it will do that resourcing.

The Minister's line of argument is disingenuous, but I am intrigued to know, if €2 billion was not promised prior to the last election, how much was.

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