Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne, keeps me well informed about what is happening in inner city Dublin. I have had many meetings with her over the past year and I have dealt with many social problems. We provided some funding at the end of November for some areas that were experiencing serious disadvantage. I know well what is going on in inner city Dublin, which is why we set up the task force. It is why we put extra funding into it this year. It is why we have €3.5 million ring-fenced for the coming year. There are many problems there. When the old programme was in place, it was done by 52 groups which were there from when the RAPID programme was set up. I have now reduced that to 31 groups and have given the funding to local authorities. The local authorities are on the ground and it is the local authority members who understand what is happening and see the deprivation that is there. That is why I gave it to the local authorities and allowed them to make the decisions on the capital funding.

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