P J Sheehan (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

I congratulate the Minister on his elevation as Minister and I congratulate Minister of State, Deputy Billy Kelleher, a politician from my own county who has been elevated to the post of Minister of State in the Department of the Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

The Roads Bill 2007 will create major freeflow roads for the major cities but nothing for my region of the south west. I remind the Minister of State that the constituency of Cork South-West extends from Cork Airport to Mizen and Sheep's Head and the Dursey Sound. It does not have one mile of national primary road, yet it is 120 miles from Cork Airport to those three locations. This area is much larger than many counties. The only legacy left by Fianna Fáil to south-west County Cork was the removal of the railway between Cork city and Bantry and Skibbereen and the light rail system and tram service from Skibbereen to Schull in the 1950s. They sold the railway tracks to a Third World African country and I believe it is still running to perfection in that country.

On that occasion the then Fianna Fáil Minister with responsibility for transport, power and local government promised that our road system from Cork to Bantry, Castletownbere and Baltimore would be reclassified to national primary status. Yet, 50 years later, we do not have one mile of national primary route in south-west County Cork. This is a dismal legacy for an uncaring Fianna Fáil Administration. Rosy promises but no action seem to be the name of the game in so far as south-west County Cork is concerned. How long more will the Minister treat south-west County Cork as the Cinderella region of this country? It has no rail service, no air service, no ferry service and no primary road service, yet Castletownbere is the largest fish landing port and Bantry is the national capital of mariculture and aquaculture.

Barley Cove, Inchydoney and Owenahincha are in the tourist riviera of Ireland. It is the major agricultural region of Ireland with companies such as Carbery Milk Products, Bandon, Barryroe and Drinagh and Lislevane co-ops, yet the region is starved of adequate road, rail and air infrastructure. It is time for the Minister to wake up from his slumber and recognise that his Government is slowly strangling the life blood of the south-west Cork region.

The last time I spoke in this House on a Roads Bill was on Tuesday, 12 June 2001. I took an enforced sabbatical from this House at the last general election but, thank God, I am back again to speak on behalf of the people I represent.

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