73. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development his plans to address economic and social inequality in 2025 in urban and rural areas; the initiatives he will undertake within his Department; and if he plans to progress funding for same. [14510/25]

Sentiment score: 0.14

My question, as is my form, is very straightforward. Will the Minister outline the plans that he has to address the economic and social inequality in 2025 in both urban and rural areas? What specific initiatives will he progress? If he could confine it to this year, I would be interested to know the scale of the ambition for the Department in terms of deliverables, KPIs and any indicators or targets that will be set.

Sentiment score: 0.21

I thank the Minister. I do not want to be argumentative, and I am absolutely committed to working across the House to ensure that we address issues regarding inequality. While I thanked the Minister for his reply, there were no specifics in it and this is where my issue is. What we need to see is, for example, a target for the number of community centres. We all know that a community centre, a physical place where a community can come together - a bricks-and-mortar building - can be the driving force in a community in order for it to start combatting inequality within its own area. People need help, however. Unfortunately, while the Minister's answer detailed some top-line figures, he did not give any specifics in terms of targets, such as targets for the number of community centres that will be opened or targets for how the Government will address the inequality. We know there is massive inequality in both urban and rural Ireland. What we do not know is how the Government is going to address it. I understand the SICAP programme and the other programme, and they are working away, but is there anything specific in terms of deliverables for 2025 that the Minister has set for his Department and other organisations to deliver?

Sentiment score: 0.11

This is where we might have a small disagreement, because I absolutely agree with the Minister that it has to be community-led, but setting the targets will not interfere with that in any way, shape or form. The setting of targets actually gives a focus. The Minister was not doing the communities any favours when he suggested that they could work not to a deadline or a target because they can. There is quite an amount of disillusionment with regard to the commitment that this Government has to regeneration, particularly in rural Ireland. The nature of the fabric was actually exposed during Storm Éowyn. As the Minister mentioned, some communities were able to be very resilient because they had bricks-and-mortar facilities and places to go, and others that had the bricks-and-mortar facilities were not suitable. Even if the Minister said that the target was to find those areas that could not step up during Storm Éowyn and begin with them, failure to set a target is a mistake because by setting targets, deadlines are driven and delivery is ensured.

Sentiment score: -0.05