Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I know the way Deputy Calleary likes to use the figures against me. I listened to him and his party say all last year that I would not spend my departmental budget. I wish to put on record today that I listened to it from January to December and I never once heard any of them say well done. A total of 99.9% of my spend in the Department was spent last year.

Deputy Calleary referred to the LEADER programme. It is ahead of progress. The town and village renewal scheme is going better than it was. I have allocated the funding. The Deputy knows that I cannot allocate the funding until the projects are completed by the local authorities. They have to put their hands up as well. Elected representatives on local authorities should be accountable in that regard.

A total of 60% of new jobs created by Enterprise Ireland companies in 2018 were outside of Dublin. Deputy Calleary cannot pick holes in the figures by saying they are beside Dublin: they are outside Dublin. A total of 58% of IDA client companies are now based outside of Dublin. Unemployment is down from 15% to 5%. People are working. The one thing Deputy Calleary and I saw, along with every Deputy who was out canvassing in the recent local elections, is that it was hard to get people at home as more people were at work.

I introduced the outdoor recreation scheme and the town and village renewal scheme. I was in Drumshanbo the other day. Deputy Calleary saw the jobs that were created on foot of such schemes. It is not just a case of them being on paper or being announced by me: the jobs are created and the companies are in place.

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