Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)

I thank the Minister of State for his answer, but he is just giving figures. The reality is that our area has suffered tremendously. We cannot keep our graduates as only 9% of them can stay and the rest have to move to the greater Dublin area to get their first job. The reality has been spelled out by the Western Development Commission, which states that there has to be balanced regional development. Unless this occurs, it is a waste of time. We will just get the dirty jobs that no-one else wants and not the jobs that every other place is getting. These are the jobs we need to keep our people.

The figures in the national development plan on roads prove that our area has not done well. What is the Minister going to do about IDA policy? The bottom line is that it has not delivered for us. There is natural gas coming into our county. A large part of IDA policy should be to ensure that the infrastructure is there, including the gas that is needed. Will the Minister make a commitment on that? Westport has lost 325 jobs, so how about decentralisation to Westport? The people are in Dublin and they think they are riding the Celtic tiger, but they are going at ass and cart pace. Our people are in Dublin and they need to be in the west. What is the logic in giving money and jobs to the eastern and southern regions? They already have too many people and balanced development should be ensured. Incentives should be given to ensure jobs will head west and the industrialists will follow the money. Otherwise, there will be no jobs. We are getting the jobs that no-one else wants and we do not want to be a dumping ground for the rest of Ireland. We want proper jobs and we will not get them unless there is balanced regional development.

Only 69% of what should have been spent on the roads in the west has actually been spent. There has been a gross overspend in the south and east of 134%. It does not even compare. We are not at the races because the money is not being allocated. Will the Minister of State give a commitment to investing money in the west, where balanced regional development is needed? Such investment is also in the interests of the south and west. What is the logic of continuing to give big incentives to companies to help them to establish in Dublin and elsewhere? The Government should try to take people out of such regions rather than putting more people there.

Some 400,000 people are passing through Knock Airport each year, 18 years after it opened, but 20 million people will go through Dublin and Cork airports this year. It is no wonder that Dublin is congested. The Government will not invest the same amount of money in Knock Airport as in the international airports. Will the Government provide the €40 million that Knock Airport needs this year but has not yet been given? It is giving Knock Airport the same petty cash that it is giving other small regional airports. The Minister of State should think of Knock Airport as the catalyst that will drive the development of the west.

Balanced regional development and proper jobs, as opposed to dirty jobs, are needed in the west. I ask the Minister of State to address this serious matter. If he does not do so, the level of congestion in Dublin, which cannot take any more people, will increase.

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