Since the Government came to power it has confirmed the termination of the Ceantair Laga Árd-Riachtanais, CLÁR, programme for high priority, weak rural areas. It has also continued to wind down the RAPID programme, leading to the effective abolition of the programme. The RAPID programme revitalises areas through planning, investment and development. The programmes were developed to assist deprived urban and rural communities which the Celtic tiger had bypassed. These communities had heard of but never saw the elusive Celtic tiger. These areas suffered deprivation for many years with a lack of facilities, services and resources. This was reflected in high poverty and unemployment rates, early school leaving and anti-social behaviour issues.

Since the implementation of the programme there have been improvements in these areas of disadvantage such as the provision of community policing units, the development of community centres for the youth, persons with disabilities and the elderly, the provision of outdoor facilities, training programmes and child care facilities. As a consequence there have been significant benefits to the quality of life in local communities and decreased anti-social behaviour. The Government is throwing all of this away at a time when unemployment in these areas is at unprecedented levels and poverty is increasing. In my constituency the towns of Carrick-on-Suir, Tipperary and parts of Clonmel are affected, as are towns and communities throughout the country.

The RAPID programme had expenditure of approximately €10 million in 2009 but this has been reduced to less than €2 million. This is a reduction of more than 80%, which is ten times the reduction of public spending generally. RAPID co-ordinators employed by local authorities have had their funding withdrawn, which has meant they have either lost their jobs or have been redeployed to other duties. Given the huge and disproportionate scale of this cut to services for the poorest people in the country I must ask the Taoiseach whether the Government has a political agenda to attack the poorest and most disadvantaged communities in the country.

The answer to that question is "No". The Government has no such agenda. The mandate given to the Government was to sort out our public finances and provide opportunities for jobs for our people. We will never have the type of country we know we can have unless these two principal issues are dealt with. Irish people have come a long way in the past three years. When one asks people, whether they are in the town or country, what they really want, one hears all the usual answers, but essentially everybody wants to have a job and not just a job but a good one. For this to happen we must have a country and an economy running effectively. We did not have this in the profligacy of the so-called tiger years when some gained everything and others lost everything.

It is still going on.

It is to recast the Irish economy in a way which impacts to the benefit of everybody. This includes the communities mentioned by Deputy Healy. The RAPID programme was very effective in many cases and announcements were made about it which were never followed through. Changes are being made to local government whereby the balance of responsibility between the elected representatives and the executive will see far greater accountability in terms of public moneys being voted and spent in urban and rural areas which have been deprived of facilities and structures for a very long time.

I was recently in Deputy Healy's county and the values of the Irish people have not changed but have strengthened in the sense of community spirit. I notice in the times of hardship and difficulties many people have fallen upon that communities have rallied in a way they did not before. This is something we must encourage and strengthen, and this is part of the €1.04 billion spend the Government will make next year for all areas, town and country, in terms of opportunities, particularly for young people, to live, stay and work at home if this is what they wish to do. The point made by the Deputy is valid, but it will not happen in the way he wants or that anybody else wants unless our economy is functioning properly whereby clearly there is an emphasis from the Government on the opportunity to create jobs and employment and get people off the live register.

The aim would also be to motivate them and give them a sense that they are making a contribution to their localities, counties and the country in general.

The policy being pursued in respect of the abolition of the CLÁR and RAPID programmes has directly contributed to the loss of 11,150 front-line jobs in the community and voluntary sector. The staff who occupied those jobs served deprived communities throughout the country. In 2012 Brian Harvey presented his report, "Downsizing the Community Sector" to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU. Said report showed that the contraction in the sector - on foot of a policy introduced by the previous Government and continued by the current Administration - would lead to 11,150 direct jobs in the community and voluntary area being lost by the end of this year and that by 2015 a total of 17,000, or one third of the total number of jobs in the sector, will have been lost. As already stated, these are front-line jobs which are occupied by those who serve deprived communities. All of this is happening at a time when-----

Does the Deputy have a question?

-----the Government has given failed banks permission to pay their executives €500,000 per year.

Hear, hear.

There appears to be a golden circle involving bank executives, Government advisers and chief executives of voluntary hospitals and, effectively, these individuals appear to be getting away scot free. As Christmas draws near and as increasing numbers of children go to school hungry, I ask the Taoiseach to cast off his role as Scrooge and reinstate funding for the RAPID and CLÁR programmes. I also ask him to reinstate the funding relating to RAPID co-ordinators.

The Deputy picks a particular line and that is what he wants to do. In the budget for 2013, the Minister for Finance reduced the rate of VAT which applies to the hospitality sector from 13.5% to 9%.

What has that got to do with disadvantaged areas?

Not only did that stabilise the industry, it also allowed for the creation of 15,000 new jobs.

The Taoiseach should come off it.

Those jobs were not all created in large urban centres. The Minister has continued the policy in this regard in budget 2014. Not only that, travel tax will be zero-rated from 21 April next and this will lead to 1 million additional passengers entering the country as a consequence of Ryanair's plan to establish new routes. Does the Deputy believe that all of those passengers coming here will stay only in Dublin? Does he not believe that they will visit the areas to which he refers? Is it not right and proper that people should never be confined to projects only and that they should have the opportunity to break out from that-----

What about the over 11,000 jobs lost in the community and voluntary sector?

-----and obtain employment in and contribute to their own communities? I do not deny the value of the RAPID or CLÁR programmes, nor do I deny the value of community employment schemes, the Tús programme-----

The Taoiseach is reading from the wrong script.

-----the MOMENTUM programme, JobBridge or JobsPlus. These all involve giving people the opportunity to obtain employment, to upskill and better themselves and to make a contribution. Of course Deputy Healy will pick an area which it suits him to discuss. He does not want to understand - perhaps he does not wish to appreciate - the fact that when the Government makes a decision, it can have an impact to the benefit of people. I refer, for example, to the decision we made in respect of the hospitality and tourism sector, which benefited the Deputy's own wonderful county.

The question I asked relates to disadvantaged communities.

The Taoiseach is waffling again.

The decision in question led to the creation of 15,000 extra jobs. As a result of The Gathering, family groups from abroad have returned to visit every county in the country. In total, some 500,000 additional tourists have come here in 2013 and this has contributed to the development of local economies.

The Deputy asked if I am going to restore the funding previous available for CLÁR, RAPID and a number of other programmes. The budget has already been put in place and we have changed the structures relating to the way in which moneys are channelled to local authorities. As a result of those changes - which alter the balance between elected representatives and the executives of local authorities - there will be far greater transparency and accountability. I hope this will have a beneficial impact on the areas, both urban and rural, to which the Deputy refers.