Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her reply. I ask that she ask her officials to provide her with data on the proportion of those moneys that goes to the high-growth communities on the edges or our cities in Waterford, Galway and Dublin, including in my and the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach's constituency. These communities do not have the sports clubs that can draw down sports grants. They do not have the community facilities that can be refurbished. They do not have schools because the Department of Education has a policy of waiting to build a school until the children have been in the area for ten years. This needs leadership within Government to join up thinking so there are special quotas from sports capital grants and social capital grants to protect and grow those communities. We are saying half the population growth over the next ten years, which is a minimum of 500,000 people, are going to go into those areas. There is not sufficient thinking about them and the NDP has not seriously addressed them.

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