Mr. Micheál Frain:

I completely understand Deputy Murphy's frustration over the ten years there. I am not as long there but I see the regional assemblies, including our own Northern and Western Regional Assembly, as the conduit between the people, local democracy, central government and Europe. It is so plain and simple. There was a phrase coined back in the early 1990s by the now Minister of State, Deputy Marian Harkin, about balanced regional development. It was always felt at the time that if balanced regional development was delivered, then we would not have the issues we have the social, economic and infrastructural issues we have today. If the money was invested at the time, we would not have issues such as this. I know that it was very close to the Cathaoirleach's own heart as well. In my area down in the west of Ireland, there were issues with emigration and things that happened there. A lot of these things all around the country emanate from lack of infrastructure. Unfortunately, there are bad actors and a lot of things that possibly get involved and use the lack of infrastructure to basically highlight their own particular agenda.

The possibility of more cohesion was spoken about again at length last week, including more devolved authority within the local authorities so that they have powers they can use and are given additional powers as opposed to slicing a cake up between the three different regions. In our case, we are a region in transition and we possibly see ourselves as not getting the same investment as other regions. The best of luck to all the other regions. We are all fighting the same challenges. With regard to more cohesion between our stakeholders, we as public representatives on these assemblies are on the ground and listening to the challenges out there. If we had balanced regional development, we would solve a lot of issues around housing, schools and the health issues we have in other areas, and spread more infrastructure around the country. That is the way to deal with it. As was said by my colleagues earlier, giving more powers to the regional assemblies with the local authorities is a way of us delivering on behalf of the State and of the Commission.