Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In the programme for Government discussions, the Rural Independent Group fought for an increase for workers on the rural social scheme. In the budget, the Government delivered 500 extra part-time jobs for rural Ireland, which was all good news for low-income farmers and fishermen. However, it looks like the devil is in the detail. When the jobs were allocated last Friday, County Cork - the largest county in Ireland in terms of geographic area and the second-largest by population - ended up with just 39 out of the 500 workers. How did Cork, with a population of more than 500,000, get only half the allocation for Mayo which, with a population of 130,000, ended up with 79 workers?

See this speech in context