James Heffernan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Senator Martin Conway seems to have drifted into County Limerick. He might be best to get on the ferry in Tarbert and head back to Clare.I join colleagues in the tributes that were paid yesterday and today to Senator Jimmy Harte. What happened to Senator Harte was tragic and unfortunate. We wish him the best. It is not long since Senator Crown, Senator Harte and I were in Gdansk and Poznan in Poland at the time of the European Championships. It is a pity to see what has happened and we wish him the very best.

I congratulate and wish the very best of luck to Glenna Lynch and Cian O'Callaghan in their election campaigns, the newest members of the Social Democrats, who declared this morning.

There have been many announcements this week and it seems that the place to be for good news announcements is the ploughing championships at Ratheniska. Yesterday there was a tremendous commitment made to rural Ireland. It makes me laugh when I see the Government's mealy-mouthed commitment. This is its final year in office and it has decided to announce a €30 million rural regeneration scheme to be introduced over five years, which is €6 million per year. If one divides that by the number of parishes in Ireland, there is approximately €2,000 per parish on offer. What kind of regeneration will that bring? When one travels throughout the country, one can see that rural Ireland is fighting on its back in an effort to remain vibrant and thriving and to survive. This kind of mealy-mouthed commitment does nothing to stem the tide of people leaving rural Ireland. This highlights the Government's commitment to rural affairs and rural issues.