Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The motion has been tabled because of the way this Government in particular has let down the west of Ireland. The buzz word a year ago was "decentralisation", but the only decentralisation was when we got rid of the Minister for Finance, former Deputy McCreevy, and moved him from Kildare to Europe, even taking his seat and giving it to an independent candidate. That shows what the people thought of that Minister for Finance and the Government.

Regarding the BMW region, people from this House, particularly Ministers, went to Europe seeking funding. They used the people of the west of Ireland as an example of why we should receive funding to be spent in that region. However, it was spent on the east coast. There is over population on the east coast and over development. There are wonderful roads, but one cannot drive on them owing to there being too much traffic. The west is under developed, with no proper road infrastructure. We fight for small amounts of money for roads every year, although this Government and its predecessors secured European funding for the west of Ireland. A public inquiry should be held into why Ministers went to Europe and sold a message to win funding, yet let down the people where the money was to be spent. That is wrong, and something must be done to redress that.

Let us take the airport in Knock. Ministers talk, and people say what should be done for the west. If the Government were serious about the west, it would give a major grant to extend Knock Airport and give us the necessary infrastructure to move people in and out of the region. The Government instead spends more money on saving Aer Lingus. It does not mind doing that, but it will not allocate money for the airport badly needed for the infrastructure of the west. The road from Westport to Castlebar was in the national plan as the next project to be completed, but it is now third or fourth. Westport must be one of the greatest tourism centres in the west, attracting thousands every year, and the single complaint that we have in the town is the infrastructure, since it takes tourists so long to get in and out. The roads are blocked because we have not received a fair slice of the national cake. That is wrong and should be dealt with, since we want to sell the west as a region.

I will give a simple example of how the two-faced Government operates. It tells us it wishes to keep rural post offices open — such is the plea of every Minister. Yet the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Deputy Brennan, writes to every social welfare recipient and asks him or her to please deal with the banks in case they are not already making enough money. By closing down post offices, he wants to give the banks and their paymasters more for foreign holidays, and he will not keep those small, rural post offices open.

The Minister, a Deputy from the west, should get in there. One of our greatest disadvantages in Mayo is that we now have neither a Minister nor a Minister of State. It had never happened since the foundation of the State that we were without someone at the Cabinet table. When responding will the Minister say what has happened with decentralisation? What is the up-to-date position? Is it over, dead or gone, and will it never happen? Deputy Cooper-Flynn was in the council chamber when the county manager and everyone else welcomed decentralisation. I told the county manager that he would be 90 before it happened and that I would no longer be a Member, since the people would probably have made a different decision on me by that stage. Decentralisation is not happening, and neither will it, since it is another promise broken by the Government. We thought that it was our first chance to achieve some regional balance regarding the west.

The Minister is from the west. As he knows, we were glad to bring Clare into the BMW region when we went to Europe. He was glad that we were able to take it on. There is no point in our having it on board if we do not get the spend from it. We want that funding in place for infrastructure badly needed in the west. We need money for roads, the airports, and water and sewerage schemes to attract industry. Instead we have several IDA factories, for example, one in Ballinrobe, which has been paid for by the taxpayer. More than €130,000 per year has been paid to someone for a factory that has been empty for the past 20 years.

That is what is happening with taxpayers' money, but we do not want that. We desire real jobs and infrastructure and a real chance like the rest of the country. I love to see Dublin developing. It is our capital, and it is right that it should develop. However, there is no point in having over development. We need regional balance. We want to see more jobs in the west and a fair slice of the national cake, particularly since we went to Europe and sold the message that we needed this funding for the west.

The motion is before the House tonight simply because we have not received our fair share of the national cake. That cannot go on. We need our infrastructure. Gas from north Mayo will be extracted and brought to the rest of the country and even farther afield. The west will get only headaches and trouble from it. We want the gas supplied to towns such as Castlebar, Ballina and Westport, giving them a real prospect of attracting industry to the west.

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