Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach gave a few statistics there but he has been in power since 2011 and the figures I quoted are not my figures. They come from the regional assembly report. The Taoiseach can see the economic gap is increasing. He might not like it and I do not like, but it has to tell him the actions he and his Government are taking are not working. He tells us the population has increased in every county and it has, but the proportionate increase in the counties I am speaking of is much lower. It is still unsustainably uneven. He talks of increasing employment and is absolutely right, but our level of employment in the jobs of the future and high-value jobs is well below the national average. He tells us the TUs are valuable and they are. They are right across the country and we are getting our fair share, I am glad to say. He mentioned the IDA property programme. Will he ring-fence some of that for the region? Will he ring-fence our fair share or look at a bit of positive discrimination? That is needed to ensure we rebalance the imbalance that is there.

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