Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Statistics, when one reads them out, sound great. There are staff in the higher Civil Service who write for the Minister and all these statistics are dazzling. However, the reality is each of us on the ground knows the problems involved in setting up business right across the country. We need to forget about those who love writing a beautiful essay; we need to work constructively together.

I was in contact with three local enterprise offices, LEOs, yesterday. When I was trying to see if training or funding was available, one of them stated it had no funding left. It is grand in here for us all to say the LEOs or whatever can do this, that or the other, but the reality on the ground, which is what matters, is that the funding is not there at present and the problem will not be solved without it.

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