Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I mean devolved. Hundreds of projects have been carried out under the devolved scheme. I have seen many instances of it in my constituency. Such projects gives a great sense of ownership to the community rather than it being something that comes from on high. It allows many people with various skill sets in local communities to do the work and, as Deputy Crawford indicated, do it more cost effectively with the flexibility and know-how on the ground at home that brings a lot of community support for those projects, which also involve much fundraising. It is great. It is another example of how we try to release local initiative, which is something I agree with in many respects in regard to many schemes.

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