Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Leader for a debate on the north west and the Border region in particular. Considering the impact of the recession, the contribution of various Governments to the regions has not been what it should be. Some recent research which has come to my attention is worth putting on the record. The Border and north west region has the lowest rate of employment, at 52%. It has the highest concentration of economically dependent individuals - that is, people less than 14 years of age and more than 64 years of age. It has the lowest level of educational attainment, in that the highest percentage of people who left school after primary school are from those counties. It has the lowest number of IDA visits, despite much acclaim for the contribution of foreign direct investment to our employment; 23 out of 350 itinerary visits took place in the Border counties. It gets less than 5% of tourism funding yet it supports 8.8% of the tourism visitors who come to the country. It has the lowest number of people in the country with private health insurance, and more than 50% of its graduates leave the country. It is clear that those statistics deserve an appropriate response from the Government. It is time this region was looked at strategically and given the level of investment that would help it perform to its potential, so that it can make a contribution to the national effort rather than being a thorn in the side of the Government, as many Governments have said. I ask the Leader, notwithstanding the difficult times, to arrange for a debate on the empowerment of the Border and north west region to allow it to perform to its potential in order that we can begin to address the clearly discriminatory figures I have mentioned.