Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

By the end of this decade, the targets will be achieved for the Cork, Limerick and Galway roads. I acknowledge the Waterford road may be behind. The bus capacity and the rail targets are way ahead. They are not way behind. It shows a negative attitude to concentrate on one among many projects. Huge progress is being made in this area. I acknowledge that difficulties exist in some areas, such as in the area of broadband. However, they are catching up and should be encouraged.

We should aim to motivate the entire system instead of trying to find another report to show we are lower down in the list. This is a very negative attitude which kept us where we were since the 1920s. Our attitude was that this country could never do things. If one has that negative attitude to life, one will always believe everything is a failure.

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