Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I hope the Minister escalates the process of delivering the funding as much as he escalated the process for the transition, which was, as I said, totally unfair. I remind the Minister that only 30% of the strand 2 projects have received their final offer from the Department. There are still too many strand 2 projects - 70% of them - that have not been finalised. Those 70% of projects are, therefore, not at contract stage. I was informed by the local authority that a number of projects have encountered difficulties in accessing matching funding. From the council's perspective, the situation that arises in Offaly is serious and raises the question of the viability of these projects. I repeat my concerns that Offaly County Council is not in a position to provide direct funding to just transition projects in terms of the matching funding the council is seeking. All interventions to expedite the finalisation of these outstanding projects with the Department should be done. This should be done by the Minister's Department so that solutions for communities can be found. It is no good for the Minister to tell us he has delivered a handful of jobs when we are losing hundreds of jobs. That will not wash. It will not cut it.

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