John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I am interested in Senator Mansergh's final point on the new rural social scheme. It has been announced again and the Senator quite rightly gave it emphasis in his remarks. However, we have little information as to what form the scheme will take. It has the potential to be a good scheme for rural areas but we do not have any meat on the bones yet and it is therefore too early to say what effect, if any, it will have.

Senator Mansergh referred to Carrick-on-Suir not having been allocated any jobs. I spent my brief time in the public service as a teacher in Carrick-on-Suir. The issues of a lack of a decentralisation announcements for Carrick-on-Suir and the increase in the minimum age for retirement from the public service overlap in my mind in regard to Carrick-on-Suir. I am struck by the fact that a city the size of Kilkenny is to get just 105 places, while Portlaoise will get 400 places and Wexford is scheduled to get 325 according to today's figures. That is disappointing from a Kilkenny perspective.