Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I do not know whether the Deputy had a question, but well said anyway. I could agree with him more.

On becoming Minister of State with responsibility for the Gaeltacht, one of the first things I did was to say I would cut down on the number of people giving out grants in the Gaeltacht. At that time people could go to Leader, the partnership companies, the enterprise board and Údarás. I said there was no need for enterprise boards operating in the Gaeltacht as we already had Údarás, Leader and the partnerships. Then I amalgamated Leader and the partnership companies, so I started with four agencies and reduced the number to two.

I am sure the Deputy's colleague, Deputy McGinley, has listened with interest to the great debate on Raidió na Gaeltachta, where I said that my vision was that by 2013 we should have one community-based agency in the Gaeltacht. I do not see why we have to have two and I agree fully with Deputy Ring in this regard.

Obviously, we are committed to the current rural development programme in the Gaeltacht. I do not see why we need two organisations in the Gaeltacht to operate the rural social scheme and the social economy and so on. In relation to areas outside the Gaeltacht, as the Deputy is aware, we have now brought the Leader and partnership companies together, which I believe is reasonable. That was a fairly tortuous effort and I thank Deputy Ring and all the other members of his party for their support in that process, both in principle and at an individual level. It was most helpful. My colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy John Curran, is looking at the whole relationship between partnerships and community development projects. They need to be aligned and cannot operate as if they are all independent empires. I am fully with the Deputy on this point.

He mentioned the Western Development Commission. It is not one of the more expensive commissions, with 16 employees and costs of around €1 million in administration annually. That said, we need to have a mature debate about the structures and the overlaps. Unfortunately, sometimes when decisions are made there is a natural knee-jerk reaction on the ground and everyone takes their cue from this, rather than analysing the initiative taken in the first place. I would be more than willing to engage, at committee level, in teasing out these issues. As I stated in a television interview today when I was asked about the Meitheal Forbartha na Gaeltachta and Údarás issue, the only thing that counts is delivery to the people on the ground.

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