Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)

I wish to share time with Deputy Ring.

I welcome the opportunity to speak about the non-implementation of the national development plan in the Border, midland and western region. I will be the first of many speakers to express utter disappointment with the roll-out of the NDP in the BMW region. The plan promised much but it has failed to deliver on its commitments. The NDP was unveiled by the previous Government in 1999 and it involves an investment of more than €52 billion in public, private and EU funds between 2000 and 2006. The plan promised significant investment in health services, social housing, education, roads, public transport, rural development, industry and water services.

It was hailed as a programme that would generate great improvements for those living and working in the BMW region and, more importantly, that would seek to close the gap with the higher levels of development and prosperity experienced in the east over the BMW region. However, instead, like many other promises made by the Government parties, balanced regional development has not resulted.

The current Dublin-centred Government has not delivered on equitable development between Ireland's regions. The gap between east and west has not been closed and, instead, the Government has allowed it to persist. The Government, through its ill-thought out and short-term focus, is the major obstacle to the realisation of parity between the regions. At its heart is the failure of the Government to fulfil the commitments set out in the NDP. Almost every pledge relating to the BMW region has been broken. The list of broken commitments is numerous and covers every area including road, rail and aviation development, job creation and social measures such as child care and community services. The Government has failed to recognise that the region is at a considerable disadvantage to other parts of Ireland and it needs the Government to focus its attention on bringing it up to par with other regions. It also defies logic that the Government has served only to make the problem worse.

A report produced by the economic consultants, Indecon, highlighted that spending under the NDP on the BMW region was well below target at its mid-point. For example, it found that less than half the projected funding, 48%, promised under the roads programme was spent. The Government has adopted a stop-start approach to the implementation of the plan in the region. It failed to prioritise the development of even one major road project in the west in 2003. The disparity between east and west is clearer when one examines the spending on infrastructure under the NDP. In 2003, €445 million was spent on road projects in Dublin local authority areas while Connacht received only €68 million or less than one eighth of that given to Dublin.

The Government may argue a comprehensive roads programme is being implemented in the BMW region but it is too little too late. The Government's inaction will mean the NDP will be delivered years behind schedule, if at all. Road schemes, particularly vital arteries to the west and north west, are years behind schedule and have ever changing completion dates. No one can credibly state they will be completed by the conclusion of the NDP in 2006.

The mid-term evaluation of the NDP in the BMW region concluded there had been an underspend of €640 million. How did the Government react? Did it swing into action and seek to rapidly remedy this? Not a chance, it sought to carry on as before and it promoted more ring roads around the capital such as the multi-million euro ring road proposal bandied about by the Minster for Transport and his Minister of State recently. I do not oppose the development of our capital city and I recognise its infrastructural needs. However, I utterly oppose the short-sighted decision taken by the Government, which is unable to recognise that the failure to generate balanced regional development and adequately funded development outside Dublin is fuelling the traffic and infrastructural problems and deficiencies in the greater Dublin area.

The failure of the Government's policy is further reflected in the spread and type of employment opportunities available in the BMW region. The Government is negligent in this regard. One reaps what one sows and that is the case in the region. It has suffered significant job losses because of a lack of Government investment in the region. My county, Donegal, has suffered hugely in this regard, particularly through major job losses in manufacturing industries.

The BMW region is falling further behind in job creation and is losing out on inward investment both domestic and international. Companies, time and again, choose to locate in Dublin and along the east coast because services and infrastructure are better developed. Figures released by the ESRI in 2004 do not paint a pretty picture and raise the possibility that the disparity in employment growth between east and west will continue to increase. Between 1991 and 2001, the annual rate of employment growth in the south and east region was approximately 5% while it was between 2% and 3% in the BMW region. The ESRI also predicted this disparity will continue until 2010 and beyond. The Government must act to reduce such imbalances. In the past it committed itself to having 50% of all new green-field industrial sites located in the BMW region, and that target must be reached. The plan is to be implemented by 2006 and the west is very much lagging behind the rest of the country. Infrastructure and other services have been ignored. Unemployment in the west and Donegal stands at 17%, while in the rest of the country it is 4%. The figures are screaming at us, but the Government seems paralysed when it comes to addressing our difficulties in the west.

There is to be a major road between Dublin and Belfast, and a dual carriageway between Dublin and Cork and Limerick and Waterford. However, the roads to Sligo, Donegal and Galway will only be upgraded. That is an indication of the Government's priorities. The west is suffering again, and the vast majority of money is spent in the east, which is already bursting at the seams. We do not have balanced regional development. I appeal to the Government at this late stage to redress that balance.

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