James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I agree that SICAP is working well in respect of the ideas behind it. It is a good idea and I compliment it in that regard, but my point was that there is not enough funding to enable it to do what it very much can do. If the 27 very disadvantaged areas are divided by €1.7 million, there is approximately €60,000 per area per annum, but when one thinks of the number of people in each of those areas, it is not a lot of funding to help them. As I pointed out, it equates to approximately half of the similar funding that was provided ten years ago under a similar programme. It is a good programme that has been well thought out and I commend the Minister in that regard. Nevertheless, we need more funding to enable the programme to do what it can for disadvantaged and very disadvantaged areas.

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