Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)

The Minister is talking about an abysmal increase in employment. The actual job loss stands at 1,394, meaning that almost 1,000 jobs net have been lost. No matter what kind of spin the Minister puts on this, he cannot deny this net loss of 1,000 jobs to Ballina over the past nine years. That is unsustainable. Whether he wants to believe it or not, the Minister is responsible and must do something. He has been doing nothing. It is not enough for him to wash his hands and say that the county council is dealing with it. The Minister should go down there and find a site. I do not know where he has been bringing those industrialists to because there is no place for them to go.

I am not, and never have been, against the Corrib gas field. What I am against is the fact that Mayo is getting nothing for it. What the country is getting from this field is abysmal. A social service in a village would provide as many long-term jobs as the Corrib gas field. I would love to see the gas brought ashore in a way that would mean something to the people of Mayo. The people need that.

The N26 into Ballina is disgraceful. The N5 is disgraceful. The road to Belmullet that one must use to reach Bellanaboy and the gas field is a dirt track. The best road down there is the haulage road between two bogs that the Government built for Shell; it is several kilometres long. If the people were getting the same consideration as Shell, we would have a different country.

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