Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the recognition by the Minister of State of the need for a significant number of this level of interventions. Technology and start-ups are vital but sometimes there is a fundamental piece that has to be done with regard to communities and some of those who have not necessarily had a perfect roadmap through the education system and have become somewhat distant from it. I accept what the Minister of State is saying regarding regeneration. Everybody accepts we are in a housing crisis and all the rest of it and there is an absolute need for accommodation but we also need to address the fundamental flaws in the context of the failure of the State to deliver for these communities through many years.

We are probably trying to do something now that is more difficult than it would have been 20 or 30 years ago, given the other conditions that prevail, particularly in big urban settings under the cosh owing to issues that exist throughout this State and island and most of the modern world, such as organised crime and drug use. These issues affect communities in particular, but we have to facilitate people to escape poverty. The only way we can do that is by engaging with the communities, putting in the supports necessary and then bringing people to a place where we can provide for the engagements required, whether they relate to technology training or other types of education and training, and then provide employment. Employment is the big one that can change people's lives altogether.

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