Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and thank her for taking this matter. My concern relates to Knocknaheeny and what is now known as the north-west regeneration project in Cork city. I represented that area of the city for 12 years on Cork City Council. When I left the city council in 2007, the project was being planned but since then, progress has been extremely slow. I am particularly concerned that funding allocated last year has not all been taken up. The plan was changed in that it was initially called Knocknaheeny regeneration and then became known as north-west regeneration because other areas were included.

I will describe the area for the Minister of State. There are 1,150 local authority houses in this, about one third of which are occupied by lone parents. There is quite a large number of young families in the area and it needs to be given priority. I am concerned that because all the funding was not used in 2014, funding may be reduced for 2015. I am asking that adequate funding be provided in 2015 for the regeneration project to progress in a speedy manner. The project needs to be expedited and we need to see far more results than we have seen over the last four to five years.