David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister's choosing of Kanturk but we have had this debate before. Cork is about three times the size of other counties but it had just one town included. Every other county had one town included also. In future, the Minister might regard Cork as having three divisions, which it has, and include three towns rather than one, thereby ensuring funding equality based on geographical size. County Louth has one town and Cork has one. That is not really fair in many ways. Maybe the Minister will consider this.

Does the Minister agree that the best way to have town and village renewal is to deal with vacancy and dereliction and get people living along the streets, as my colleague said already? Every second premises in a town like Youghal is now empty and boarded up, which is extraordinarily depressing. What can the Government do urgently to encourage owners of such premises to have people living along the street again? It is really serious. Every shop that closes leads to another closure, and then another and another.

See this speech in context