Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming in. I have been listening intently to what he has said and to the questions. He mentioned crises or challenges for the economy that may be coming. We have housing, health and climate action, including carbon tax and public transport issues. We are fighting many things on many fronts. The Minister talked about the national development plan and the spending that will happen. That all relates to the infrastructure that we need for the country to sustain itself over the next 15, 20 or 30 years.

I offer as an example the media reports about Intel having shortlisted a site in Oranmore in Galway for development and creating up to 10,000 jobs. A project of that size in the west of Ireland would mean that we would need to have at least 12 counties supporting that with resources, supplies and all that goes with that. It would be transformative for the region. If this project were to be successful, we would need to make sure that we are building the required infrastructure, including the outer bypass of Galway city, upgrading our roads to Sligo, creating rail lines and improving the rail networks that exist, because we are talking about up to 10,000 people. There is a challenge but also an opportunity. How will the Government deal with this? I asked the Tánaiste about it yesterday and he talked about additional supports for people in the region.

The eight counties in the Northern and Western Regional Assembly have been re-graded to being a region in transition, a lagging industrial region and a moderate innovator. The European Union has done a score sheet. It states that the re-grading is due to a lack of expenditure per capitato create the basis to keep balanced development in the country. With all the crises that we have, how will we balance that? How will we positively discriminate for such a region to make sure that it raises the bar further? How will we access the potential of Structural Funds from the European Union to do that?

That is my first question for the Minister. How does he see those challenges? If something is to lose out, what will lose out? It is a significant challenge and I wanted the Minister's thoughts on it.