Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Like Senator O'Mahony, I am not a member of the committee, but being from County Roscommon and representing the Roscommon-Galway constituency, I always have a great interest in the commission's work. First, I compliment the witnesses on the work they have done since the commission was established. There is no doubt its presence was significant in terms of at least showing there was some survival in the region. My point is that if the commission had not been there, we would probably be in a worse position.

My questions might not be in the witnesses' remit, which is fine. I will understand that. First, however, what is the commission's budget for 2018 and how many staff does it employ? Is that budget open to all areas of development? We know it is open to industry, for example, but what about tourism and rural renewal? Is it open-ended?

I will make some brief comments before putting more questions. My big concern is the Roscommon perspective. According to the latest figures, between 900 and 1,000 people a day travel from Roscommon to work in Dublin. Somebody said to me recently that we are lucky to have the jobs, and it is great that we have employment within the island. I wish to reflect on families and the number of people I know who rise at 4 a.m. or 4.30 a.m., rush to get a train or get into their car to avoid the traffic, work in Dublin all day and return home at 9 p.m. or even later. It is no life for a family. One sees the situation in Dublin and the east coast. Galway city is also bursting at the seams, yet 40 minutes along the motorway Ballinasloe has lost almost 3,000 jobs in the past ten or 11 years. I constantly ask why we cannot consider some relocation. The same applies to other towns such as Mountbellew, Ballygar and so forth. That is the first issue.

Second, broadband is non-existent in many parts of my region. Obviously, there is an issue with the roll-out of the national broadband plan. It has not happened and that is a Government issue, so I am not blaming the commission. There have been many announcements about broadband but it has not happened. The reality in some situations, and it is a minority of situations, is that a number of small businesses are moving out of the county. For example, in the case of east Roscommon, businesses are relocating to Longford town from Strokestown, Roosky and elsewhere. I accept that they may be rurally based and that it is not all bad news with regard to broadband, but we are losing some small businesses specifically because we cannot deliver broadband. We were told that broadband was going to be as important as rural electrification. If it is, why is it not happening?

We are told in the 2040 plan that the development of the N4 and N5 national primary routes will take place. Can we fast-track them? As the witnesses know, the big issue with the road from Westport to Dublin is the road through County Roscommon. I have met many people in the big industries in Mayo and they constantly complain about the state of that road. How can we push those further and get that work done as quickly as possible? The same happens in Carrick-on-Shannon. There is no plan for a bypass or ring road for the town, where there is a dreadful situation for traffic coming from the north west. The development of that ring road is very important. In addition, I have noticed that bypasses have affected business in our towns. If one owns a filling station, a newsagent or a similar type of shop the bypass has had an effect. It might not affect a hardware shop or a pharmacy, but it definitely has an effect on hotels, filling stations and so forth. I have asked this question previously but is there a fund available or can one be made available to rejuvenate such towns? Every time a bypass is completed, €60,000 to €100,000 is spent on a piece of art work to commemorate the opening of the new bypass so why can there not be a fund to rejuvenate part of the bypassed town?

I do not wish to take up any more time as Deputy Ó Cuív wishes to speak, but those are my questions. If they are not relevant to the witnesses' area, I will accept that.