Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy should look at the rural development programme launched recently by the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, which, for the first time in many years, is a comprehensive plan that is realistic and can be achieved. The CSO figures today show that unemployment is down to 7.1% from 15.2% just a few years ago. Last week, the Minister for Social Protection announced an extra 550 places under the rural social scheme for those on farm assist or fish assist depending on the areas in which they live. There are plans to look at community involvement and extensions of time for people who have been working on community schemes and who cannot be replaced that easily so I do not accept that there is no opportunity for every community around the country to benefit from this programme. This, together with the programme for Government, which impacts across the country and every spectrum, was evidenced in the response from communities all over the country last year in the centenary commemorative events for 1916 where communities came out and demonstrated their own power and potential. I believe very strongly in that.

The programme launched last week covers a range of opportunities for communities all over the country and the money is in place between now and 2020 for communities to make that happen. Whether it is through the local enterprise office or the Intreo office, the systems have changed so that people looking for employment or opportunity now have the chance to sit down with somebody directly to see what might be appropriate for them or in their best interests to allow them to get off social protection and get into a better system by having a job and a wage. While the Deputy's point can be valid in any area, I have to say that arising from the publication of the plan last week, there is the opportunity for every community to benefit from a range of things, many of which were identified in the Commission for the Economic Development of Rural Areas report a number of years ago and which are now embellished in this programme for rural development and the achievement of rural potential. I would advise the Deputy to follow through on elements of that with particular reference to the locality in west Cork to which he referred.

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