Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will follow on from Senator Craughwell's comments regarding the emails, which I am sure everyone will have received, in respect of the Leader's comments last week. These comments were in response to comments I made to her in respect of the digital Covid certificate. I just want to show support for the comments she made. Everything the Government is doing in bringing forward measures is meant to protect people, people's lives and industries. The comments made in emails such as those we have received are also made by some public representatives. I know of one in Tipperary who takes a populist view and calls the measures discriminatory, medical apartheid and rubbish like that when all we are trying to do is protect people. I support the Leader in the comments she made last week.

I ask her for a debate with the Minister for Rural and Community Development at some point. I do not recall us having such a debate previously. I would like to discuss the funding of projects under the rural regeneration and development fund. There was good news yesterday for a number of projects that received extra funding. There were two such projects in County Tipperary. A project in Thurles got an extra €500,000 on top of the €3 million it has received to develop a permanent structure for a farmers' market. That is a really good project for the centre of the town.

There is a problem with the rural regeneration and development fund that we need to work to solve. In the latest round of applications, a contingency of approximately 25% was allowed for to take into account the changes in material and development costs to get projects from start to finish. In previous rounds, there was only a contingency of 5%. Some of those projects are only starting now but what they will now cost to complete is far greater than the funding sought from the Department, even with that 5% contingency funding. I ask for a debate with the Minister to discuss increasing the contingency funding to 25% for those applications made in previous rounds, which is what new applications are to receive.