Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister may be aware of the All-Island Research Observatory, AIRO, report. I hope Cork County Council made her aware of it when she was in west Cork recently. It is an independent report drawn up by the council, which has proved that County Cork has seen the lowest amount of funding over the past 30 to 40 years. County Cork is 40 to 50 years behind on funding in respect of roads, rural regeneration, the town and village scheme and the local improvement scheme, LIS. I accept that a lot of this is before the Minister's time, but that was an independent report and I have asked the previous Taoiseach to acknowledge the report. I will ask the new Taoiseach to acknowledge it. It is a shocking indictment of successive governments turning their backs on the rural community.

The Minister said she was in west Cork recently. So was Deputy Varadkar, when he was Tánaiste, about six months ago. He stood in the area of the Schull harbour project, which was perfectly suited to rural regeneration funds. He stood there almost tongue-in-cheek and, at the same time, he was the Taoiseach in the Government that refused to give the people involved the money, even though they ticked all the boxes and, as I said, were brought up here, got a pat on the back, were told they would get the money by three Ministers and had their picture taken. Pictures went up on social media all right, but they never got a brown cent.

We need a better focus on places like west Cork and rural Ireland, especially with rural regeneration funds, if we are to try to get communities to survive during the winter period, as they may be able to do during the summer.

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