Vol. 567 No. 5
82 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs when he expects to publish the promised statement of strategy 2003-2005 for his Department, which he indicated would be published early in 2003; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14525/03]
Following final approval by me on 23 April last of my Department's draft strategy statement 2003-2005, I brought the document to the Government meeting of 30 April, at which approval for publication was obtained. The document is currently being translated and prepared for printing and bilingual publication. I will be in a position to lay the strategy statement before the Houses of the Oireachtas during the week commencing 16 June, with public dissemination to take place shortly thereafter. The strategy statement will also be published bilingually on my Department's website.
Will the Minister agree that it is highly unacceptable that the publication of the Department's strategy statement is taking place almost on the anniversary of the setting up of the Department? Does he agree that the main reason for the delay in completing the statement is confusion in relation to the RAPID programme? I await, with bated breadth, the strategy statement and the Minister's views on that programme.
In reply to the Deputy's second question, no, I do not agree. On the first question, obviously I would have liked the process, which is a complicated one, to have been faster. The Secretary General had to prepare, within six months, a strategy statement which I then had to vet and bring to Government. It will now be published in bilingual form on 16 June.
Will the Minister agree that, when he presented the draft statement to the joint committee on 19 February last, the only reference to the RAPID programme was in a diagram attached to the statement? Can he assure this House that the draft which is now being approved contains a much more substantial section in regard to the co-ordination of the implementation of the RAPID programme which, as the Minister knows, is the major broken promise of this Government?
There is no broken promise in regard to the RAPID programme. As already pointed out last week in this House, expenditure on urban regeneration in terms of local authority spending is €900 million. Work on that programme is ongoing and there is no connection between it and any delay in publishing the strategy statement.
The Minister did not answer my other question on whether we can be sure that when the strategy statement is published it will contain a section on the co-ordination of the implementation of the RAPID programme which goes way beyond the sole mention made in terms of the draft programme – there was no substantial reference to the programme in text form, it was merely illustrated in a diagram.
The Deputy asked two questions. On the strategy statement, all will be revealed on 16 June. On the other issue, I have previously made it clear that I am looking at the operation and co-ordination of the RAPID programme. I have explained that I intend dividing issues into those to be dealt with at departmental level and those which would more appropriately be dealt with at local level. I have outlined in detail the steps I am taking in this regard and the Deputy can be assured that we are looking at ways of improving the operation of the RAPID programme. We are doing not only that which was promised, but a great deal more.
I take the Minister's point but I am seeking an assurance, in terms of the Department's strategy and the collapse of the RAPID programme, that measures will be implemented to ensure this important programme is taken out of the doldrums in terms of its implementation as is currently the situation.
I am amazed at people's willingness to believe their own views rather than the facts.
The Minister is doing that.
No, the Deputy is. The RAPID programme – I do not know how many times I must explain this – was, in its concept, a re-prioritisation of expenditure by existing Government Departments under the national development plan. It was never a self-funded scheme. The only funding ever to be provided under the RAPID programme—
That is not being disputed but nothing has happened.
If providing €900 million is seen as doing nothing, so be it. Most people would consider €900 million to be a considerable sum.
That is re-labelled funding.
It is not. Either it is re-prioritisation of the national development plan or it is not. In regard to local authority housing, the national development plan invested huge amounts of money in areas of deprivation. Anyone who tells me that investing money in places like Ballymun and Fatima Mansions – amounts that have never been spent in these areas since they were built – is not re-prioritisation of national funding is, in my view, talking nonsense.
