Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

With regard to the selection process, we could have picked any number of places around the country. We tried to get the right spread and size. In response to Deputy Calleary, the local authorities are the organisations that move the funding through but we expect that the communities will lead to get results. We give them funding and they can employ experts. A number of people have come to my Department but I do not want to get into that, because it is not for me to select who will do the work that needs to be done for these towns. I hope that they will come back. This is the first time that it is not the Government telling communities what to do. We are telling the communities to tell us what they need. The six towns that come back might have the same ideas. There is an issue relating to dereliction of property and we may need to do more for the compulsory purchase of these properties. Maybe we need to give local authorities more power to be able to take over some of these properties. There is a demand for housing for people across the country, including in rural Ireland. I would like to see some good ideas from this. With the rural regeneration scheme, we want to target areas that need investment. That is why, this week, I set out with my officials to explain to local authorities, even though they were blaming me, that they were not shovel-ready when they submitted applications. It is like the Christy Moore song with the line "Don't forget your shovel if you want to go to work." Many of these did not have the shovel but pretended to.

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