Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)

I am grateful for the opportunity to raise an important matter on the Adjournment, namely the jobs crisis in Ballina, County Mayo, where the unemployment rate at 11% is twice the national average, and where 1,000 jobs have been lost in the past nine years, with the closure of Asahi, Heneghans, Oasis and other factories, as well as the loss of spin-off industries.

The fact that the IDA still has no site, premises or business park to market, sell or exhibit to potential investors is a terrible scandal and a mark of the its failure to deliver. We have lost 1,340 jobs in the past nine years and have created only 400 in replacement, a net loss of nearly 1,000 jobs. We have been dealt a mortal blow and the IDA seems incapable of delivering what we need.

There has not been one week in the Dáil in recent times when I have not brought up the neglect of the Ballina and north Mayo area and the need for infrastructure in the BMW region. The Government has failed miserably to act. No town can sustain the loss of 1,000 jobs in nine years. Something must be done. The IDA and Enterprise Ireland must work harder for north Mayo. Ballina is now an unemployment blackspot and needs urgent attention from Government. The time for talk is long past — we need action. Neither the Government nor the IDA has any excuse.

Having had discussions with the IDA and with the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, I am as convinced as they that the problems boil down to a lack of infrastructure. The IDA has told me it has great difficulty securing jobs in north Mayo. It states that manufacturers want to go to an area such as Dublin, yet Dublin still receives IDA grants despite already being overpopulated. We need those jobs in Mayo but our people must leave the area to get employment.

The IDA also states that manufacturers need larger centres with the scale, infrastructure and services capable of sustaining their investment. That is why we need roads and rail links such as the western rail corridor. We need broadband and technology parks — all the things that will give us a level playing field and balanced regional development. The west is not a competitive area because we do not have such infrastructure. Industrialists and the IDA complain bitterly that, for example, the poor state of the N5 militates against an industrialist settling in Mayo. We have long been promised the 27-acre industrial park on the Sligo road to Ballina and we can do very little without it. It needs to be fast tracked and I ask the Minister personally to intervene. We need the N26 Ballina-Bohola bypass and the Government must put pressure on the NRA to ensure this essential infrastructure is delivered. I again ask the Minister to intervene.

The fundamental problem is the failure of Government to provide balanced regional development and the necessary infrastructure. With €3.9 billion NDP underspend, is it any wonder we are not a competitive area for industry to locate? A surplus of €2 billion has already been generated in the first two months of 2006. Why can this money not be put toward providing us with the infrastructure we need? The national development plan has not been fulfilled and the national spatial strategy has not been implemented. Ballina is a hub town which is crying out for support from Government. The time for talking has passed and now is the time for action.

The numbers on the live register in Ballina exceed those for the whole county of Roscommon, which speaks for itself. People talk about development for Mayo and the Government has paid much lip service recently on the need to develop Mayo and the work it is doing. As an example, it wants to bring ashore gas from the Corrib field but when did the Government last see the state of the Castlebar to Belmullet road? It is a dangerous dirt track, yet in one spot where peat is brought from one end of a bog to another there is a virtual highway built for Shell. I wish the Government would give the same commitment to the people of Mayo as to Shell. It is a pity that the commitment and generosity shown to Shell does not spill over for the long-suffering people of Ballina and north Mayo. I ask the Minister personally to intervene to ensure that the IDA and Enterprise Ireland work harder to ensure that the Ballina technology park becomes a reality, that adequate broadband technology is rolled out and that the NRA will fast track the N26 Ballina-Bohola bypass to give us a future. It is our right as citizens. At a time when the Government is boasting about full employment, it is a clear indication of their lack of commitment to Ballina that a town should have such a high unemployment rate. I urge action now.

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