Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister for his response. I know of his commitment to this programme, both from serving in opposition as a spokesperson and government, where he has continued his good work. I also recognise the work of my former constituency colleague, Heather Humphreys, in enhancing the CLÁR programme. I am sure the Minister will continue to enhance that programme. We all know that the provision of facilities nowadays for communities or small schools is costly, be they playgrounds or other much-needed facilities. The CLÁR grant scheme is essential for enabling the smaller populated communities to put in place amenities and some sporting and recreational facilities. It is a vote of confidence in those communities. In the past, those communities were losing population. Thankfully, most of those communities are growing their population and we need to have facilities in place to ensure people living locally can have proper amenities and community facilities to avail of.

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