Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----the essential ethos of the programme, which was previously about independent companies empowering local communities, as part of a politicisation of it. That process of politicisation was begun by the former Minister, Phil Hogan, who went off to the European Commission, and continued by the current Minister, Deputy Kelly.

The way in which the Government has dealt with this matter is a scandal in itself. It has undermined the companies to which I refer and subsumed them into local authority structures. It has also undermined what was best international practice in so doing. The European Union lauded the model that was originally put in place in respect of Leader and rural development companies. What is being done by the Government in this instance represents a brutal assault on rural Ireland. Will the Taoiseach reverse the cuts and restore, for the period 2014 to 2020, the funding that is necessary in order to, at a minimum, maintain the level and quality of services that have been provided in rural areas by the companies to which I refer? Will he see to it that the Government reverts to the tried and tested model which previously worked effectively and which was lauded by the European Union as honouring the intention behind the programme the latter originally designed?

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