I welcome the fact that the Minister is telling me the document will be published. I take it that it will be published in October or in the next few weeks. Will the Minister confirm that? Will the Commission report itself be available? All we have are media reports of what the Commission has done. What it has done regarding recognition is very serious. It repeated its previous concern that the regional disparities in Ireland were among the highest in the EU and warned that if left unchecked, the trend of growing in…

I welcome what the Minister is saying and the extra money; however, what is occurring is a damning indictment of Government policy, which is committed to balanced regional development. This has not come out of the blue. In 2020, a report by the European Parliament's Committee on Regional Development categorised the region as a lagging region. In the Northern and Western Regional Assembly's pre-budget submission for the most recent budget, it set out low levels of research-and-development expenditure and problems wi…

It has disimproved.

No, it is a misunderstanding of-----

I draw the attention of the Minister to the spending review carried out by the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service, IGEES. What steps is the Government taking with regard to the recommendations in that review and the data? I also point out to the Minister of State that there is a serious misunderstanding somewhere in the media reports on the downgrading of the north-west region. Will the Minister of State come back to me separately either with an email or a letter on that?

The Minister of State has acknowledged my earlier interest in this matter as I have followed up on this before because my experience in Galway has been dreadful. The health executive of the time leased a property for almost €1 million per year on a 35-year lease, and in the end it was cheaper to break the lease with a €1 million penalty. I have a particular interest and it would seem to me to make more sense to have State owned properties. There is an acknowledgement of that on page 9 of this review in respect of t…

As the Minister of State may know, I have the greatest respect for the Office Public Works and it does great work. There is a bigger policy decision here for every government as to the type of policy they will adopt in encouraging important entities of the State to rent or purchase. A clear message has been given here that it is cheaper to build in capital terms over a period. Of course, I agree with the Minister of State that in the short term one sometimes needs to lease or rent. I have no problem with that but n…

The tabled question is Deputy Durkan's and the other is a supplementary.

There are set times for the questions. Deputy Carroll MacNeill might come in on another question. It has to be related to the question.

In any case, we are out of time. I call Deputy Boyd Barrett.

It is Question No. 91 in the name of Deputy Richmond. We had a forewarning.

We will not have the full time for Deputy Griffin's question but he will have the 30 seconds and one minute.

The response is not available.

It is normal practice for it to be available.

Just before midnight Minister; well done.

Baineann mo cheist le Gaillimh 2020, oidhreacht an togra seo agus soiléiriú ar an oidhreacht sin. I followed up Galway 2020, with its myriad of problems and its successes from day one. My specific question relates to what is being left and the legacy framework. Can the Minister of State please give specifics on that?

I state reluctantly that the reply is very disappointing and the Minister of State will know why, given the history of this project. It started in 2014 and it is now 2022. He provided a repetition of the answer I received in June about a framework. Where is the framework? Why has it not been published? There were serious issues from day one with this project with regard to constant turnover of staff, governance issues and a lack of robust control. The myriad problems were highlighted at the Committee of Public Acco…

I will try to capture something in one minute. In an analysis of the capital of culture, 87% of the funds came from the public purse. The Comptroller and Auditor General said this was contrary to a Government decision that it would only be 50%. There are many other problems besides. Here we have another framework and committee and, in the meantime, the building of a former industrial school, known as Lenaboy has - officially - been sitting vacant since 2011. It is vacant since 2009. The narrative was that it was gi…

Go raibh maith agaibh.

Thank you.