James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Minister's engagement on this. It is probably our final exchange in the current Dáil term. I do not know if we will be back again for another round of these parliamentary questions. Throughout your term, Minister, I have enjoyed dealing with you. We have very different political views on many issues. I wish you a long and happy retirement from this House. You have done a lot of work for the State.

The Local Link service has been one of the shining lights of Government policy in recent years in how successful it has been. The reason I am standing in the House today is that it is wanted by communities that do not have it. We are coming to the end of our mandate. In any future programme for Government negotiations that may come up in the coming months, I strongly encourage that we would look at places like those I have referenced, which could badly do with having a good Local Link in place. Where it has happened in east Cork it has been very successful and I want it to continue in other areas of the constituency as well.

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