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

I agree with the Minister that it is a substantial amount of money but it reflects the scale of the problem. It is not long since the Government recognised that places such as the north-east inner city required additional funding such was the level of deprivation and intergenerational neglect over a long period. This is not about casting blame at one Government or another; it persisted for generations. The Minister states that €119 million over three years is substantial but the problem is that SICAP has to be matched with the other funding programmes. It needs to grow and to be measured by the element of need in those communities. In parallel, as I have informed the Minister previously, there must be targeted funding that should and could have come through RAPID, but that is no longer available in the sense that it has now become a community enhancement programme and has a far broader remit. Our drugs task forces have seen no increase in core funding. These are not all in the Minister's Department and I am not blaming him for this but we need a joined-up Government approach across all Departments to deal with the issue of significant and sustained disadvantage in particular areas. The Minister needs to ensure that SICAP grows significantly because the issues the programme deals with are as great today as they ever were.

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