Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Hopefully, in the post-Covid world, we will try to rebuild the economy on a regionally balanced basis and people who have moved back into rural areas as a result of Covid-19 will contribute to that. Community wealth-building and the inclusion of social clauses would be key to that. It is something I have an interest in and, as the Minister said, if we spend public money, it should have a public benefit and help people in terms of labour activation, training, skills and that kind of thing. That will help on a rural and regionally balanced basis.

I am delighted the Minister will speak to the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth. That would be good because we need a more strategic and co-ordinated approach to using public money to support the public good. I hope the Government takes a more co-ordinated approach. As I said, the Department of Rural and Community Development is one of only seven that uses social clauses.

See this speech in context