Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to tell the Deputy what shovel ready means. It means that the project is ready to go when it gets the grant aid. The county council sent us an application for a project and told us that it would be ready in the fourth quarter so it wanted us to allocate money for a project that would not commence until December of next year. That is not shovel ready. Shovel ready means that a scheme can start the minute the funding is granted. Any of the projects that were shovel ready were considered by the evaluation committee.

The Deputy does not like facts but I will give him the facts. My Department has allocated €27.75 million in funding to Cork in 2018 and to date this year. That is a substantial amount of money. LEADER, the town and village renewal scheme, the outdoor recreation scheme and the local improvement scheme and many other projects in Cork were funded by the Department. I reject what the Deputy says about this scheme. An evaluation committee composed of highly qualified people makes the decisions. The Deputy listens to the local authorities telling him that projects are shovel ready when that is not the case.

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