Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the opportunity to speak about the national development plan. In the limited time available, I would like to focus on the Border region, the need for a real peace dividend and the need for a truly national all-Ireland development plan that maximises this island's resources and brings the two parts of the island closer together.

I would like to start, however, by discussing the issue of child care. The promises made in the national development plan in respect of child care have not been delivered. The forum on the workplace of the future recently exposed the reality that child care costs in the State are the highest in the European Union. Irish parents spend almost twice the EU average on child care and it is clear that the problem is getting worse. Children have a right to receive the best possible care and parents, especially mothers, have a right to access the labour market. It should be recognised that no development plan can succeed and no economy can develop if a proper child care network is not put in place by the State. I advise the Minister of State, Deputy Killeen, that he might as well bin the national development plan if the issue of child care is not sorted out.

The Government and the EU recognise that counties Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan, Monaghan and Louth comprise a region of special need. That is reflected in the context of the peace process and in a number of programmes which seek to address the social and economic problems of the region. A great deal of progress has been made, but the region I have mentioned continues to suffer significant disadvantages. It has not enjoyed the same level of economic growth and development, including infrastructural development, as other regions. The level of inward investment in the region is lower — it is exceptionally low in some counties — than in the rest of the country. Rates of unemployment are higher in such areas and rates of participation in third level education are lower. It is worrying that the level of such participation in County Monaghan is among the lowest in the State.

There are many poor roads in the region of special need I have mentioned. It suffers from inadequate or non-existent public transport, insufficient energy supply and a lack of broadband facilities. The current roll-out of broadband facilities to some towns is inefficient, patchy and inconsistent. Communities are suffering as a result of the Government's disastrous privatisation of Telecom Éireann. The State is paying through the nose Eircom and other private companies to develop an infrastructure that could and should be in public ownership. Many existing services suffer from a failure to co-ordinate and integrate service provision on a cross-Border and all-Ireland basis, thereby hampering the efficient and equitable delivery of services in the Border corridor. The health system is the prime example of that.

Since the Good Friday Agreement was signed, painfully slow progress has been made in redressing the balance and bringing the Border region in from the cold. The national development plan in this jurisdiction and the structural funds plan in Northern Ireland share a common chapter that highlights that areas adjacent to the Border are some of the most disadvantaged areas of the North and South. It makes specific time-bound commitments about cross-Border co-operation and integration of services and infrastructure in the areas of energy, communications and electronic commerce, human resource development, agriculture and rural development, tourism, transport, environment, education and health. It is essential that the common chapter commitments under the headings I have mentioned should not continue to be mere aspirations, as many of them have been until now. It is time to act on and accelerate the commitments, with a focus on delivery, within definite timeframes.

The common chapter states that the EU's community initiative programme, INTERREG 3, is the primary fund for addressing issues of cross-Border co-operation. The problems of actual delivery that have been identified must be addressed. Little progress has been made in delivering the common chapter commitments to co-operation between the health services. As a result, the health needs of the people of the southern Border counties and their close neighbours north of the Border are not being met as they could and should be.

The reorganisation of health service administration in the Twenty-six Counties has created doubt about the continuation of existing co-operation. It is essential, therefore, that we renew our commitment to the extension and development of the existing mechanisms for co-operation between the western and southern health boards in the Six Counties and the north-western and north-eastern sections of the Health Service Executive in the Twenty-six Counties. That is necessary if we are to improve co-ordination and co-operation in respect of ambulance cover, joint training and the sharing of emergency admissions.

Work should begin immediately on common chapter commitments on planning for major emergencies, the procurement, funding and use of high-tech equipment, collaboration on research into cancer and other matters, participation in multi-centre trials, health promotion and public information and education about matters such as heart disease, cancer and smoking. The Government should issue a firm commitment to ensuring there is no further diminution of acute hospital services in the Border region. This jurisdiction's co-operation with hospital services in the Six Counties should be further developed and enhanced.

I endorse the motion tabled by Deputy Cooper-Flynn about the western rail corridor. In the same vein, the Government should establish a task force for public transport in the Border region. It should set targets of delivery of improved bus services by the end of 2005 throughout the region and across the Border. It should increase the level of funding being made available for the rural transport initiative. It should immediately draw up an action plan for the strategic extension of the rail network within the Border region.

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