Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will certainly look at the report, but it is very strange for any Deputy in this House to call for an independent inquiry, to state what the outcome should be and then to state what the punishment should be. That is nonsense, Deputy Collins. That is not what an independent inquiry does. An independent inquiry looks at something independently, it does not have a predetermined outcome and it certainly does not have predetermined sanctions for people. I think the Deputy is taking a very strange approach to this, if that is his view.

In relation to the rural development fund of a €1 billion and the urban development fund of €2 billion, these are competitive funds and the projects are assessed independently and are scored, or at least that is what is supposed to happened, and the best projects get the funds. It is not divided on a per capitabasis. These are national funds, and funding is supposed to go to the projects that score highest.

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