Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

"BMW" has always been an unfortunate acronym for the less advantaged part of the country we were forced to designate when Ireland as a whole lost its category 1 status within the European Union. "BMW" is the logo of a very flash motor car which is a status symbol for those most favoured by the Celtic tiger and hardly reflects progress for communities in the Border, midlands and western regions. It is, however, a very apt analogy for what is very much a flashy-car Government that produces sets of documents which often contradict each other.

We have a national development plan allied with a national spatial strategy and an obscenely political decentralisation plan, none of which fits together. The decentralisation plan has nothing to do with decentralisation itself. Unfortunately, the BMW region suffers as a result. The problems in the application of the national development plan in the country as a whole on foot of Government inconsistency have been felt most in the BMW region. In the nation as a whole, the ratio of the imbalance in capital expenditure between roads and public transport is 3:1 and far greater in the BMW region. This is because our transport policy in so far as it exists is a radial policy aimed at getting people in and out of and around Dublin.

According to the motion Deputy Cooper-Flynn submitted, the western rail corridor must be opened as quickly as possible if the BMW region is to even come close to the roads-public transport expenditure ratio for the country as a whole. Unfortunately, the Government uses a longer finger for public transport projects than it does for any proposed roads project. The Government must be taken to task for the imbalance between roads and public transport expenditure and for the way in which it has allowed the roads programme to exceed its budget and time constraints on projects which take place almost exclusively in the south and eastern regions. The BMW region has been made to suffer more for the Government's indolence and poor management.

Among the other infrastructural shortfalls we face is the failure to roll out broadband. If anything can make the economy more vibrant and effective, it is access to information technology. The Government has been negligent in ensuring the roll-out of broadband as quickly as possible in the country as a whole and especially in the BMW region where the pace of progress has been less than that of a snail. Child care is another area of shortfall. It appears the Government is running the equal opportunities programme down and setting its face against the idea of continued State support for community child care. While we all have problems in our constituencies, the Government's decision on child care will be felt most sorely in isolated, under populated communities in the BMW region. As usual, the Government is speaking out of two sides of its mouth and making contradictory statements. As a result, the BMW region suffers.

I hope we have a wider debate in the House as soon as possible on how to progress the national development plan. On this occasion, I do not take the opportunity other speakers did to relate defects in the national development plan as it pertains to the southern and eastern regions to problems in their constituencies. While I commend Deputy Cooper-Flynn for submitting notice of a motion on the way the national development plan is failing the BMW region, there is a need for a wider debate on the plan as it affects to the country as a whole.

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