Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Burke for his comments and he is quite correct and I also compliment the Minister, Deputy Humphreys. When the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, and I went into the Department this year we fought very hard to get extra funding and I must compliment the Minister. It took a number of weeks to get our funding in place but we have now opened a lot of schemes that had not been open for many years. The Deputy is right about the small investment in rural areas. People forget that for every euro we put into any community it means that somebody has a job and is employed. The funding creates employment as well as providing a modest community centre and so on. Where the funding is put in place it creates a lot of jobs, for which I am glad. I compliment the Minister, Deputy Humphreys again because we went in and we negotiated but the difference was that she brought the team with her, and the team fought with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. We did not win every little battle but we got a fair bit of funding this year. On the CLÁR programme for which I have €5 million, I am hoping - and I am depending on the Minister - that I will be spending more than €5 million.

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