Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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He said in a very low voice, unless there was an external shock. I will always remember that. The external shock came. That is why what we are discussing today is so important, as well as the ESRI report from last week. The way to protect ourselves against the next recession, which there will be at some stage, is to have this infrastructure in place. I am fearful of what will happen if we do not and what that will mean for the regions and the whole country, all while Dublin is one of the most congested cities in the world. This is not just regional. It is a national matter that we need to address. We have gone off a bit on addressing regional inequalities. The Bill will go some small way towards doing that. I understand how Deputy Shanahan has narrowed and focused this Bill to get wider support for it because the important thing is it is passed and gets through the system.

Deputy Shanahan referred to modern IT systems and that the form of reporting would not be an additional burden on Departments, which should be the case. Is the Deputy sure there is that kind of uniformity in IT systems across the system?