Liam Twomey (Wexford, Independent)

I am delighted to speak on tonight's motion. County Wexford is a rural constituency and has been neglected not only since the last election but also the previous election. Decentralisation, health, education and jobs will again be the dominant issues in the next general election unless the Government focuses on rural Ireland.

Last Wednesday, Fianna Fáil members of the Oireachtas Committee on Finance and the Public Service voted against a discussion on decentralisation, which was due to take place after the local elections, so that it would not be considered an election issue. This is of great concern to members of the committee like myself who come from rural constituencies because we support decentralisation. It is a bad omen for support of the issue at local level.

There have been a number of public meetings in regard to post-primary schools in my constituency in County Wexford. At least five schools in the constituency need major capital investment. The last enrolment figures in a school in Gorey, which was built to accommodate 900 pupils, stood at 1,600 pupils. An area 15 miles away has been promised a new secondary school for the past ten years. The same lack of investment in post-primary schools is taking place across the county, and we have not even begun to have a discussion on primary schools. Such schools have insufficient space, poor services and do not come up to scratch in this modern era to educate our young people for the future.

The Minister for Health and Children has no commitment to rural Ireland. The lack of investment in the health service in the south-east, and County Wexford in particular, bears this out. The way the people of that county have been treated is a disgrace. If this remains the case for the next three years, the Government will pay the price at the next general election. The Hanly report is mocking the people of rural Ireland given that the Minister for Health and Children is spending more than €100 million on Cork University Hospital in his constituency and there are plans to spend more than €400 million on services in the Mater Hospital in the Taoiseach's constituency. There are plans to spend €500 million in both the Taoiseach's and Minister for Health and Children's constituencies. This is the same Minister who insults people like me who try to highlight the weaknesses in the Hanly report by saying we are being parochial and self-serving. In fact, we are the people who have a rational idea of the direction the health service should take.

Much of the spending on major infrastructural projects is still focused around Dublin. It is not being spread out across the country as envisaged when the plans were being drawn up. Rosslare Europort in my constituency is probably one of the few profitable ports in the country. This port has suffered from severe neglect. The investment it receives every 15 or 20 years is just enough to prevent it from being washed into the sea. Even though it is an important port and has many green sites that could be developed for both distribution purposes and for light industry, there has been no investment in the port. We have no idea what will happen to the port in the future. It is owned by CIE which is just interested in taking the profit. This money gets gobbled up and squandered in another part of that monopoly. I would like to see the Rosslare ferry port being taken away from CIE and put under the control of a Department that would take seriously development and investment in County Wexford.

There is a perception that rural voters are being taken for granted because they remain loyal to the political parties. Urban voters have a higher percentage of floaters who are courted much more dramatically by the Government. Rural voters are getting fed up with being ignored. The Government has had three years to show its commitment to the country as a whole. As decentralisation will not be a smooth transition, we want to be part of the process from the beginning so that we can ensure it will work.

More than one million patients living outside major urban areas are entitled to a proper health service. The Government should implement a fair school programme because there is a huge difference even between Wicklow and County Wexford.

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