Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. People interested in developing areas should note that this innovative concept has been used internationally and I welcome the idea behind the scheme.

Unfortunately, I approach this matter with a degree of cynicism. While I like to be positive and proactive in everything I say and do, I have seen wonderful projects across Europe that were co-financed by local authorities. As someone who has been involved in community projects, I am upset and annoyed by the lack of support provided by local authorities to communities interested in positive projects. If one comprises a for-profit business, one has every opportunity to get money and to use it to good effect, but it is more difficult for community concerns. Previous schemes required local community contributions, but getting that money can cost an arm and a leg and such projects may not get off the ground.

I welcome the positive idea of a business improvement districts scheme, but enterprise schemes are only as good as the investment made and the willingness of the local authority to carry them through. In my area, the local authority has been incapable of handling waste management. People have been given notice of ten business days, excluding holidays, to try to get an alternative disposal system for our county. One would be inclined to succumb to the cynicism stemming from such issues, but one likes to be positive concerning these matters.

The town of Ballina is a neglected area and has lost thousands of jobs without replacements. It does not have an IDA Ireland site to which industrialists can locate. We have been told that industrialists have been brought by IDA Ireland, but we do not know where because no industrial site exists. There is a legal problem in respect of land acquired a number of years ago, but any local or State authority interested in the type of development that would bring necessary jobs to the area should ensure that the matter of land is not held up in a legal quagmire for years.

We lack the resources to build the infrastructure necessary to make our area competitive, namely, broadband, roads and railways. We must wait until 2008 before the BMW region is brought up to a par with the east and the south. By 2008, the deficit of €500 million in respect of our roads will have been made up, but where will the south and east be? They will have gone so far ahead that the BMW region will not have caught up. We will continue to lose 60% of graduates to the greater Dublin area.

Such problems exist, but I welcome the business improvement districts scheme and any measure that allows local autonomy in collecting funding for local use. It is my earnest wish that schemes such as this succeed. I will be positive concerning the matter and I hope that the Government will live up to its obligations to balance the deficit, which should have been made up by the end of this month, by 2008.

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