Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister referred to a number of companies where irregularities have been discovered. I represent companies and I served with one company in particular for many years. That company had an outstanding pioneering role in local development. The Northside Partnership came from the community. Local development organisations before the Northside Partnership in the 1980s paved the way for the programmes carried on by the Northside Partnership. They are the really successful companies. There is a real fear of the effect of the dead hand of local bureaucracy. In that era I remember some excellent local authority officials but also some officials who acted as a road block to any kind of innovative development and social entrepreneurial development. Social entrepreneurship is a key aspect.

Contracts for funding of the rural Leader social inclusion programme are due to expire at the end of this year. There has been no word about the renewal of contracts and how funding may be handled. I ask the Minister for his views. Does the Minister envisage that all the staff of these companies will be transferred to the local authority to be directly managed by the county manager? As my colleague, Deputy McNamara stated, there is a fear that this spark of initiative in all the really good companies could be extinguished by the Minister's hand.

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