Larry Butler (Fianna Fail)

I agree with Senators MacSharry and Quinn that the focus of this legislation is to ensure a lift-off in the economy. While I commend the amendment, in the past ten years local authorities have made great strides in providing community services, not just in Dublin but across the country. The problem with putting individual groups into community centres is that they tend not to last. Community groups now join forces. For example, most GAA centres share with the local soccer club and other groups in the community. This is what we want to encourage. A small individual group on its own may falter, the centre would become derelict and the county council would have to become responsible for it. I do not believe that is the way forward.

We could not include a mechanism for dealing with mortgage arrears in the legislation. It would do the Bill an injustice to introduce any other measure at this point. The Bill is essentially a business plan to regenerate the country and recapitalise the banks. Putting bits and pieces of other legislation into it will only send out the wrong message. No one has more experience than Senator Quinn in how to run a successful business and I agree with his view on this amendment. The Minister is sympathetic to the spirt of the amendment but including it in this legislation will only divert from the main focus of dealing with the economy.