Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment and thank the Minister for that. The importance of this scheme to rural Ireland is enormous. In Galway East, the budget for the past five years was €5,728,456, from which 170 community projects have benefited. By 31 December, the allocations will have been made to 170 projects. That is an enormous amount of money. Some 25 projects will have received €934,000 for enterprise development. Seventeen projects in rural tourism will have received €563,000, and so on. There is not a parish, boreen or village that has not benefited from the scheme. Of all the schemes I know, this is the one that I would like to see continued and built upon. We have the necessary expertise within the companies that are developing it and in the Department. I compliment the Department, the Minister and her predecessor, Deputy Ring, for all the work that went into this scheme and continues to be put into it.

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