John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Mr. Watt is not the first person to which I have thrown this question. I have asked some current and former IDA officials about this and they have argued that money should be earmarked for the regions. Their opinion is based on the fact that there are people within the IDA who do not examine regionalisation the way they should, and as long as we have these figures for the country as a whole, everything is fine. All I am asking Departments to do is consider the figures, as 82% of investment is going to those three urban areas. We are talking about what could be the only stimulus package this country sees for many years and there is a risk that the areas which have not seen investment in the past ten, 15 or 20 years will be excluded, as everything almost automatically goes to the urban areas. It is a problem that seeps into social issues in this country, as everything done about the spend of the Exchequer has a bearing on these other issues. We must think about this before the legislation is published. It is a basic point.

There may be another way to come at this. Is there a way of substituting Exchequer funding? The Department is examining capital and how Exchequer funding is being spent across the board in different Departments over the next few years. Is there a way to substitute some spending across the board into those areas and the parts of the country which have not received funding to date?