Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)

The Deputy might say it is "outside of the normal channels" but I wonder if he ran this question by his colleague, Deputy Pa Daly, who represents the constituency of Kerry, before he came into the Chamber. Deputy Daly has used a similar channel for festival in Tralee called Anam. It was approved under that channel and received €7,500. There was no difficulty with that. I do not know what Deputy Ó Snodaigh has against the people of Listowel, and I do not know what he has against Listowel Writers Week, which is a very worthy festival. The last time I answered questions in this House, Deputy Ó Snodaigh and Deputy Doherty tore the place asunder over funding for a musical event in Gaoth Dobhair. Since those parliamentary questions, I was able to allocate funding to that event outside what the Deputy would call "normal" procedures. Does Deputy Ó Snodaigh believe I should take that money back from Gaoth Dobhair? Will he take it up with Deputy Doherty? Will he take up the €7,500 that the Department allocated to a festival in Tralee on foot of a request from Deputy Pa Daly? According to Deputy Ó Snodaigh, this was done "outside of the normal channels"?

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