Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Ceann Comhairle might show some leniency. I congratulate all the Ministers, the Taoiseach and so on. I had plenty to say in that regard but do not have the time. I will make three points, the first of which is on health. I have to hand the programme for Government and I say "fair play" to Deputy Halligan, who I note is getting an additional CAT lab in Waterford. A total of 106,000 people live in Waterford, it has a motorway all the way to Dublin and is 75 short miles to Cork. In the north west, which is represented by other Members such as Deputy McLoughlin, Deputy Martin Kenny, Deputy Scanlon and myself from Sligo and Leitrim, there is no CAT lab. If one has a heart attack in our part of the country, one is at a disadvantage and has a lesser opportunity to survive that incident. The national cancer control programme, in the context of the north west, is a total disaster. Galway, the supposed centre of excellence that serves the north west, is beyond capacity. However, the programme for Government contains nothing about that and I wish to ascertain what will happen in that regard.

As for rural Ireland, I offer my congratulations to all the Ministers. It is nothing personal but of the 18 positions that were announced by the Taoiseach today, 72% of them went to the greater Dublin area, as well as a small number to Cork and Limerick. There is nobody from the north-west of Ireland. Moreover, in the ultimate display of contempt for rural Ireland, I gather that Deputies Moran and Canney were obliged to beg to share an individual junior ministry. The senior role in respect of rural Ireland has been stuffed into the portfolio of the Minister, poor Deputy Humphreys, together with regional development, arts, culture, Gaeltacht and whatever else. While there is no question but that she is good, nobody is that good. Where is the commitment for rural Ireland? Is there a desire to consider matters strategically, to invest and to rebalance the IDA budget and put the regions to work, instead of consistently looking at the regions from a national perspective as a pain in the national side? The issue must be examined strategically. There must be investment in those areas and they must be put to work in order that they can make a more sustainable contribution to the national effort. This must be done and in the context of the framework to which Fianna Fáil has agreed to facilitate a minority Government, I do not see much in this thus far to show the kind of commitment Fianna Fáil expects with regard to rural Ireland and equality in the health service nationwide.

I will conclude shortly but on agriculture, I wish the new Minister, Deputy Creed, well. The focus on agriculture must be on market access and that cannot be done through Bord Bia. The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, was here recently listening to a debate when I stated Bord Bia is the best in the world at what it does but it is not products such as Tullamore Dew and Ballymaloe relish that need to be sold. Markets must be found for the unfashionable unsexy forequarter beef, which is difficult. It comprises more than 40% of the animal, is for sale for less than €3 and that is not sustainable. An assistant secretary and a junior Minister are needed in the air full time to get rid of BSE-era regulations that are blocking our produce from getting into markets and getting open live cattle markets in order that we have a balancing factor here against the processors and the vested interests. I conclude on those basic points. I wish the Government well but for as long as Marc MacSharry is in this House, let no one think that Sinn Féin Members are the main Opposition, no matter what Fianna Fáil is facilitating. While I genuinely wish the Government well, the programme for Government has nothing in it to show a level of commitment to rural and regional Ireland that is any greater than that of the previous Government.

While the devil may well be in the detail, there ought to be an awful lot more detail about what the Government is going to do in the constituencies where, as an outgoing Government, they were wiped out.

See this speech in context