Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his clear response. I also thank him because I know he understands what this community needs and what these halls mean to the community. I must also stress that the reaction has been felt strongly on the ground locally. In some ways it has also been fuelled by many negative things, which were not related to this. There are concerns and it is important to let us know as soon as these are resolved, because there can be a negative reaction when people hear for the first time that money is being withdrawn. As the Minister of State said, this has nothing to do with money. This has to do with an application, which was declined for some reason, whether it was put together wrong or did not give the proper information. I agree with him that we have to be very careful giving out substantial amounts of money regarding who it goes to, how it is used and, above all, how the community benefits from it.

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