Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)

In rural villages in the west, small businesses find it impossible to make ends meet as their overheads are so great. However, their overheads are on a par with businesses in O'Connell Street in Dublin, with the same insurance, heating and staffing costs, and regulations to enforce. They must ensure the fire officer, who can be very hard to please, is kept happy. These factors and costs put a major onus on these small businesses, particularly those in the tourism industry, which has a short season. In the west, the tourism season is even shorter. A special concession should be given, or perhaps a special VAT rate, to provide people with some semblance of equality, particularly in the west in small villages like Achill where people find it hard to survive. It does not make sense, because balanced regional development cannot work if people are leaving the area, and half our graduates must do so because they cannot find work in the west. They must go to the greater Dublin area, which puts more pressure on that congested area. If Dublin were a boat, it would now be submerged under the ocean — the east coast would be submerged.

To develop Knock Airport, for example, makes great sense. Some €30 million is needed this year for a category 2 landing system at Knock. This would reduce the number of diversions, which is small, and would also put the airport on a level playing pitch with Dublin, Cork and other airports which have such facilities, and give Knock flights rapid turnaround times. The airport needs the space and investment. Jet aircraft, which are getting larger all the time, can land at Knock Airport, which has a runway second to none, but the turnaround time is limited because the apron is inadequate for those aircraft. Government investment is needed in the airport. That would be more logical than pouring more money into Dublin, which is already congested.

Industrialists are now finding out the truth of the matter. US-owned financial services group PFPC International moved from Dublin originally because it found it very difficult to hire and retain people in the Dublin market. It said its decision to invest outside Dublin was motivated by the availability of workers rather than cost considerations. The biggest factor was that it wanted to continue to grow.

Government must wake up. The CEO bells are ringing. Dublin is so congested that it can no longer move. Traffic is reduced to ass and cart pace and people find it impossible to get in and out of the city. The same is true of Dublin Airport, where queues of people wait. One has to allow another hour or two when flying from there. It does not make sense, when Knock International Airport lies almost fallow in a very strategic location in the BMW area and serves 13 counties. Why not put an international financial centre there? That could do the same for the BMW area as it did for Dublin. There is a great need for proper investment in the west and this would be one way of providing it.

A sum of €365 million for the western rail corridor is a pittance compared to what has been spent and will need to be spent to sort out the congestion of Dublin and the chaos people face trying to get in and out of the city. The Government is now thinking of establishing a third Dublin airport terminal in a city where the numbers going through the airport will reach 38 million annually by 2025. That is an astounding figure when one considers that 500,000 people will pass through Knock Airport this year and more than 17 million will go through Dublin Airport. It does not make sense to leave half the country virtually fallow and underdeveloped while continuing to plough money into the attempted relief of the congestion problems in Dublin.

More companies will move out of Dublin. Should the IDA and the Government be providing money to coax industry to Dublin, a totally congested city? Why not remove those grants, or double them for companies coming west? That would be a positive move. The current decentralisation is not helping. There are wonderful companies in the west, such as Allergen in Westport which manufactures ocular lens solutions. These companies have proven themselves. They have put up with the existing infrastructural deficit and proved that in the west they are second to none as manufacturers. Why does the IDA not encourage people to go west when one considers that in the north and west Mayo area, 1,000 jobs were lost in the past few years? That is a great number of jobs. The situation does not make sense.

I congratulate past Governments on the success of the Irish Financial Services Centre, which boasts annual premiums of €13 billion, making it the fourth biggest reinsurance centre in the world. Surely that money could be spread around and not just kept in Dublin. I support the Bill but I hope that Government will take on board what I have suggested.

See this speech in context