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

I thank the Minister for his reply. I am very pleased to hear the positive outcome for the north inner city. That bolsters the argument I am making. If it is working for the north inner city, we must consider the other very disadvantaged communities right around the city and the country. The funding they would have received traditionally through RAPID and so on is no longer available because we now have the community enhancement programme. However, that programme is not targeted at the most vulnerable areas. I have seen the projects it supports and they are far outside the traditional RAPID areas. It is also the case that the money the Minister talks about making available for community enhancement this year is relatively small by comparison with what is going to the north inner city. On the level of support required by our most disadvantaged communities, will the Minister work to identify where those communities are? I heard the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, say on the radio this morning that he is working on next year's budget. We will gladly support the Minister, Deputy Ring, in any bid to provide additional funding to target areas of significant economic disadvantage which have endured long-term unemployment and a range of other issues. While those issues are now being addressed in the north inner city, we need to roll this out to other areas nationally.

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