Anne Rabbitte (Fianna Fail)

Yesterday was a proud day for us in Portumna, where we opened the historic courthouse. That was thanks to the investment of rural regeneration and development fund, RRDF, moneys. Some €3.2 million was spent on it, of which €2.9 million was allocated from the Department. This goes back to the then Minister, Michael Ring, fighting hard for recognition of the need to invest in rural Ireland. It continued under the former Minister, Heather Humphreys, and under the current Minister, Deputy Calleary.

Reinventing these buildings brings them back to life and allows art, community, enterprise and cottage industries to come alive on the main streets of our towns and villages. That cannot happen without the work of the local authorities. In our case, it was Liam Hanrahan, Ronan Conway and their expert team at Galway County Council.

The reason I stand here is to ensure that funding under the RRDF programme continues. It is only now that our local authorities have attracted the skill sets and stood up their teams. It is only now that they are able to address these projects with pace. It is only now that they have a supply of builders with the skill sets to ensure our historic buildings are preserved to a high standard, where we can partner the past with the present and, at the same time, look to the future.

In that vein, since today is our last day for submissions to the NDP, it is important we ensure that, with the funding that has been laid aside for them, the strategies and projects under the RRDF and URDF be allowed to come to completion. In addition, other projects that could come on stream play a vital role and we should be wholeheartedly behind them.