Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am going back to this morning’s debate and I am just pointing out that this is six years of capital expenditure. As well as dealing with the same issues affecting the rest of the country such as housing, rising unemployment costs, energy, insurance and so on, Gaeltacht na nDéise is an example of a Gaeltacht area being weakened by a shortage of funding from this Government. In particular, this relates to housing. Údarás na Gaeltachta owns a significant development site in An Rinn. It has been talking about planning and developing it for nearly 15 years. I would ask the Minister of State to give that special attention.

I welcome the appointment of the new board of Údarás na Gaeltachta and would remind the new board that if it wants to fulfil its remit of protecting Irish language areas by funding and fostering enterprise, development and job creation initiatives it will first need to address the areas being left behind.

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