Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

Will the Minister agree this is a disgrace and effectively means that €27.5 million of taxpayers' money has gone down the drain on decentralisation projects that have been abandoned or mothballed indefinitely? Will he agree the public in the regions were sold a pup by Government in respect of decentralisation and that the reason it has not happened two years after the deadline for its completion is that there was no proper planning of the process from the outset? Does he not feel some shame in turning up in Cavan where there were to be 244 jobs, or Donegal where there were to be 283, or Waterford where there were to be 431, or Cork where there were to be 840, and explaining that the Government has spent the €27 million, but cannot deliver on those projects because it has been, to put it bluntly, incompetent?

See this speech in context