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

I want to read a quote to the Minister:

I want to have a rethink about the community enhancement scheme and the RAPID programme. I started to think about this matter the other day. We all know what is being done in the north-east inner city and how it has been successful so far. People would like to have that model replicated in their areas but that is not possible. One could not find the resources to do it in all areas. I thought that perhaps we should designate ten or 20 areas of profound deprivation around the State and do something similar, but then it occurred to me that we had done that previously and called it RAPID.

That was the Taoiseach speaking a month ago. We all know our most disadvantaged communities need additional support but community enhancement is not the additional support those communities need. The Minister has closed it down. He should not blame us on this side. I know there were problems in 2011 and funding was suspended, and I would be the first to put my hand up. However, we did not close down the a programme that positively discriminated in favour of our most disadvantaged communities. The Minister did that. At a time our economy is doing well, our most disadvantaged communities need that level of support and the Minister has let them down.

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