Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Before Mr. Talbot moves off that point, he has spoken about the motorway from Gort into Tuam and then on to Dublin.

One could draw a line from Tuam up to Mullingar and one would cut off the entire north west. We just do not have the road infrastructure. We are doing well to keep the businesses, the multinationals that we have, there. They tell us all the time that they are losing money because goods that are being transported on those roads are being damaged en routeto the various ports and different areas. It is vitally important that Chambers Ireland advocates for proper infrastructure - for a good road network in the north west and for proper rail links, because Mayo is one of the counties making the greatest use of freight rail. We only have one line, however, which goes straight to Dublin. If that gets cut off for any reason it has a huge impact on our companies such as Hollister, Baxter and Allergan. These are major employers in that area. We feel that the north west is consistently left off the map in every planning framework and in all of the investments in infrastructure which we speak about. It is so important that organisations such as Chambers Ireland fight for us in that regard.