Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his favourable comments about County Carlow and the possibility of some helpful incentives being introduced in the coming weeks. I wish to return to my initial point that there should be a redistribution of the fund. While I accept the rationale behind the decision to distribute the funds as they have been distributed, I would like to compare the distribution to County Carlow to the distribution to counties of a similar size. I mean no disrespect to County Leitrim when I mention that its population is considerably smaller than the population of County Carlow. County Leitrim has a population of approximately 30,000 and receives a total contribution of €8.28 million from this fund. The population of County Carlow is almost twice the size of that of County Leitrim, but it receives just €5.35 million. The figures do not seem to add up. While I accept the rationale behind what the Minister of State is saying, I stress that there is a need to look at details such as the population in each county and the size of the county towns in each county. I suggest that such an examination will reveal that differing approaches are being taken. It is not quite a level playing field.

I would like to mention one of the mistakes that could be addressed at this stage. In the past, towns over a certain size that had town councils received block grants to enable those councils to look after certain issues. That has been gone for the last few years. We have seen a negative result from that. The funding that was previously available through the block grant, which was used to deal with issues in large towns, is no longer available because of the disappearance of the town councils. There needs to be a re-examination of the whole funding model. It is obvious that incentives are very important. I welcome any incentives that may come on stream in the next week or ten days. Overall, something more definite needs to be put in place so that local authorities can plan for the future. Such an approach would enable regional towns that have suffered in recent years as a result of the downturn to build for the future and look forward to attracting the businesses that are required. I hope such businesses will be coming down the line. I have suggested what we can do to give them the incentive to go forward over the coming period.

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