John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is. The Minister is proud of the success of the scheme in the north-east inner city, but my concern is that, although he identified the amount of funding that had gone to that area, areas of significant disadvantage in other parts of Dublin are only receiving a sum of €32,000. That amount is not proportionate to the challenges facing them. It is welcome that the Minister has reopened the programme. He must ensure funding goes to those areas. In my constituency the RAPID programme area is north Clondalkin. There are other areas of disadvantage, but the area of greatest disadvantage has been identified. Funding should go to it.

The Minister will have to fight for the funding required. I acknowledge he can be dogged and determined, and we will support him in this. Funding of €2 million for a national programme is not significant enough, considering that the Minister is putting more into the inner city alone than the rest of the country. He is seeing the result of this, which testifies to the benefit of the programme. I want to see in every disadvantaged community investment at a scale that will bring meaningful results.

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