I used this phrase in September 2002. I have always stood in awe at the ability of my colleague in Galway West, Deputy Michael D. Higgins, to use the most beautiful English in answering questions. It was an art form from which I have learned much over the years.
We have many schemes in many different areas. I have spent most of my life in community development and I am still involved in it in my spare time. We want to tailor schemes to the people's requirements and this is what people who are involved in community development tell us to do when we go around the country. There are differences between the requirements of different communities, whether rural or urban. Deprived urban communities have totally different requirements from some of the rural communities.
Schemes originated in different places. For example, there are partnerships which came from the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation and the CDSPs came from the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs. One must always question which scheme is best for each community. For example, there are only 3,000 people living on our islands. On Gaeltacht islands there are Gaeltacht co-operatives and on non-Gaeltacht islands there are CDSPs. These are chalk and cheese operations although there is no difference between the islands except that the people speak a different language. I must ask myself which is the optimum model. Maybe the optimum is half way between the two but the question must be answered.
I must dispel the idea that the Minister of State or I want to do down community development. We want to listen to what we are being told by the community developers and to make the schemes responsive to what they see as the requirements in their daily work. They are not uniform across the country. We want to get away from a uniform prescription by Government as to what CDSPs, Gaeltacht co-operatives or partnerships are about and to devise a more locally flexible model.