Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is key. We need to see high-value jobs and the closing of the growing gap in average disposable incomes between the west and north-west region and the rest of the State. We need to see what the Northern and Western Regional Assembly has called for repeatedly, namely, positive discrimination. We need to see major investment in infrastructure in the west and north west if we are to turn the situation around. The region has already been downgraded not once, but twice. It is now a lagging region, which is serious and should set alarm bells ringing. The rural proofing mechanism needs to be in place, but it is also important that we meet the assembly's request for major investment in the west and north west.

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