Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I second the motion to amend the Order of Business proposed by our leader, Senator Darragh O'Brien. I join all sides of the House in saying how sad we are to hear of the resignation of Jimmy Harte. I wish him a full and speedy recovery from his tragic fall a couple of years ago. None of us realised at the time just how serious that event was and its unfortunate consequences, which we now see. The high esteem in which he has been held on all sides of the House was reflected on this side in that our Whip facilitated the pairing of Senator Harte throughout his illness at all times and without exception, even when he might have been under severe pressure not to do so. I compliment our Whip for coming to that accommodation with his opposite number, Senator Hayden of the Labour Party.

I am particularly disturbed by yet more spin by the Government on rural regeneration. The announcement seems to be welcomed here.A Chathaoirligh, we are talking about €30 million over five years and that includes the Leader programme, the contribution to which this Government reduced by 40%. This is a significant amount of money in rural Ireland. I come from an area where the Leader programme was held up as a model, not only for the rest of Ireland but for the rest of Europe. The Leader programme has worked and continues to work because it has an input from the ground up, from communities upwards. In my county, and I think the same is true of other Leader areas, there is a consultation process under way which has received very positive feedback from the general public to ensure the money is filtered down to where it will be most effective. If this Government was really serious about rural regeneration why does it not reintroduce the CLÁR programme that Deputy Ó Cuív had when he was Minister? Why does it not reintroduce the RAPID programme which helped inner cities and which had a real positive effective impact on communities?

Would the Minister of State with responsibility for rural development come into the House and explain how this €30 million - this drop in the ocean, this public relations stunt in the dying days of this Government - is going to be spent that will have any impact or any effect whatsoever? Why is more money not given over to local authorities for secondary roads? Why is there no reintroduction of the local improvement schemes? Why are all these schemes, which were done away with by this Government and which were having a very real impact on rural Ireland, now being shunted to one side? We get a PR statement coming out during the National Ploughing Championships which makes it look well. I think it is unacceptable.

I also take up Senator Marie-Louise O’Donnell on what she said. I say to the Senator that we are very serious about our politics. A newspaper headline some years ago said “Payback time.” It is obvious from her remarks that the Senator is deciding in the dying days of this Government to ensure her own seat in this House because it is going to be payback time for her.