Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The Deputy should be quiet. He better enjoy his last days in this Dáil because we are targeting his seat. He is on the way out. Deputy Finneran announced a new road for Roscommon that was not in the national roads programme, was not in the county council programme and could not even be found in space when they went looking for the money for it. The Deputy said he was talking to the top man in the NRA. That top man must have gone to the moon because we could not find him when we asked for information on that road.

We are not looking for much. All we want is fair play. I support the Minister of State and my colleagues from the west regarding the road from Longford to Mayo. It is the biggest disgrace in the country. One cannot overtake a lorry when travelling from Longford unless one goes into the sea at Clew Bay. We have been talking about that road for 20 years. A small amount of money was provided for the N26 to Ballina. Now we are told there is another small amount to come because there is an election around the corner. Why can we not get an acceptable amount of money from the Government to do jobs, instead of getting a small bit now and again? Are we not entitled to get our share of the national cake? Are we not entitled to the same funding as the east coast? Are we not entitled to go to work on good roads and do business the same way as it is done on the east coast?

We got no jobs from this Government. IDA Ireland might as well be in Spain on holidays. It opened an industrial park recently in Castlebar and it paid €16,500 to put up a tree near the entrance.

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