Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I reject what the Deputy says. I will just give him two pointers. I will outline what Deputy Pringle's council, Donegal County Council, did only last week. Every council agreed to the rules and regulations of the local improvement scheme, LIS, except Donegal. I will tell the Deputy what his county did. Every county was given an allocation of LIS funding, and each county was told to prioritise the roads. Deputy Pringle's county submitted €17 million worth of projects so that I would prioritise them. I will not do that. That is not my job. If the councillors and officials do not prioritise those schemes I will not do it for them.

I ran the CLÁR programme fairly and on a per capitabasis, like every scheme that I have ever run, including the sports capital schemes. Deputy Pringle should not blame me or my officials because his county did not apply for the schemes properly. My officials have no more time to go back to inefficient county councils that could not put in the paperwork the way we did last year. I reject the Deputy's submission. I will put a few figures on the record of this Dáil, if the Chair does not mind. I do not like that kind of allegation from people like Deputy Pringle.

See this speech in context