The Government was challenged by Labour to honour its commitment to fast-track promised funding under the Revitalising Areas by Planning, Investment and Development (RAPID) programme.
The party's spokesman on community, rural and Gaeltacht affairs, Mr Brian O'Shea, said that the "cynical betrayal of disadvantaged communities through the Government's failure to provide promised funding under the programme would be extraordinarily difficult to pass."
He was speaking during a debate on a Labour Private Members' motion critical of the Government's performance on dealing with social exclusion.
Mr O'Shea said there had been disjointed planning and very little investment and development since the programme was announced in 2001.
"During the general election campaign, Fianna Fáil TDs, in particular, used the promise of the RAPID programme to hoover up votes in disadvantaged areas desperate for a lift," he added.
He said it was roundly to be condemned, as a measure of the Government's real commitment to the RAPID programme, that since its inception only €2.2 million had been spent directly in driving the programme.
"Indeed, in this year's estimates, the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs's vote for local development and social inclusion measures was reduced from €47.6 million to €44.9 million."
Defending the Government's record, the Minister of State for the Environment, Mr Noel Ahern, referred to the achievements by the local drugs task forces. "They are an excellent example of how Government departments, State agencies, front-line workers, community people and politicians can work together." The House will vote on the motion tonight.
