Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the pre-budget Estimates for the public services and to compliment the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, and the Government on bringing forward a new format for the Book of Estimates, the budget and the delivery of that €58 billion budget in a more transparent manner in terms of the spending of taxpayers' money. That must be a positive development. One important step in that new format is the development of further innovations, on which I compliment the Minister.

Much debate has taken place in recent times on the standing of this country vis-À-vis its growth in economic terms. We must all accept that the hazy days of high economic growth of the past five or six years have passed but it is predicted that the growth rate for 2007 will be 4.75% and for 2008 to 2010 it will be 3.5%. By any standards, whether international or more particularly European, our growth rate is at the top of the league. This country has benefited from that enormous growth in recent years, as is evident from the position in the different services provided in that period.

I will concentrate on the level of investment in the constituency I represent of Roscommon-South Leitrim, previously Longford-Roscommon. Some €30 million was invested in school development in County Roscommon in the past six years; more than €10 million was invested in child care facilities; and new Government offices were developed. Investment was made in hospitals and other health services in the region, the difficulties experienced in which I hope to address later. Work is taking place on the N6 and by 2009 a dual carriageway will run from Dublin city to Galway city through the bottom half of my county and constituency of Roscommon. That artery through south Roscommon will bring enormous benefits and opportunities for further developments. I was pleased that a decision was taken to sanction the Ballaghaderreen bypass some months ago. It will benefit not only County Roscommon but will be another important artery on the N5 from Dublin to the west and will eradicate the gridlock experienced by motorists on that route.

Transport 21 is innovative. I was glad to hear from the Tánaiste and those in Government circles that the national development plan is to be implemented, even given the restrictions being placed on the public finances. That is important. In the past when the economy was not is such good shape the first casualty was always the capital budget. That was a cheap short-term decision. The Government decision to proceed with all the infrastructural development under the national development plan is to be welcomed, and I compliment the Tánaiste on saying that is to be the case.

The Minister, Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív, spoke about decentralisation. Having served as a former member of the Committee on Finance and Public Service for the past five years, I heard comments denigrating decentralisation, saying that it would not work. Perhaps it will not work at the pace initially expected and too much was expected in a short timeframe, but I assure the House that it is working. An advance party of up to 90 staff of the Land Registry will be based in Roscommon by Christmas and a new building is to be constructed starting in 2008. Further decentralisation of offices to Carrick-on-Shannon, Charlestown and other areas is taking place. All of that is beneficial to the development of the region.

People in the west have believed for far too long that they were not getting their fair share of the benefits of the national cake, so to speak, but recently the Tánaiste, together with the Minister for Transport and the Minister with responsibility for rural affairs, have concentrated on issues important to us and have responded in a positive way. The development of the western rail corridor was left to be addressed for many years. I spoke to the county manager of Mayo County Council on Monday and he informed me that in the next three years, €45 million will be invested in the Knock Airport development, almost €28 million of which is taxpayers' money provided by the Government. That is a welcome development for the people of Roscommon, Mayo, north Galway, Sligo and other areas in the region. I do not want to ignore the difficulties being experienced in Shannon. We support Shannon in its attempt to maintain services it considers important but we too must look to our future and I believe our future in our region is with Knock Airport.

We are now no longer a low cost economy and we must examine other opportunities that will allow us create employment and wealth. One area in which we can do that is through tourism. Recently, the Tánaiste announced a new tax corridor on the lower Shannon. There are great opportunities there for people to invest in tourism projects and to attract more people to the region. The opportunities for angling, boating and tourism generally in the Shannon basin are enormous and much of it is untapped. I look forward to the roll out of that scheme for the lower Shannon.

Another issue is that of pension provision. For too long, our elderly were not looked after but that has changed. The previous Government indicated it would increase the pension to €200 per week and it has said it will increase it to €300 during the term of this Government. I was glad to hear the Taoiseach say on the Order of Business this morning that the Government intends to honour that commitment.

It is important that everybody aged 70 years gets a medical card, which is not generally the policy elsewhere. My relatives in America believe that is an innovative measure because there is no such scheme in that wealthy country. Elderly people are being well cared for. They are the people who built up this country and it is only right that we should give some return to them and make their lives comfortable.

I have a proposal for Government on the Industrial Development Authority. After all this time I believe that authority is east coast orientated and I am not happy with the level of job opportunities being presented to us in the west. The IDA is not concentrating on the county towns and rural towns in the west. I could count on one hand the numbers of jobs that have been created in some towns and regions. The Government will have to instruct the IDA to look outside the Pale and the south and to look west. Counties Roscommon, Mayo, Leitrim and Sligo also need jobs. We are entitled to our fair share of the cake in terms of job creation. I read of announcement after announcement of jobs for areas, but they are not for the west. I hope during the term of this Government the IDA will be directed to have regard to its responsibility for all parts of the country, including the area from which I come.

The contribution of Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív has been positive for the west of Ireland. He highlights issues and introduces schemes that are important to us, such as the CLÁR scheme or the rural social scheme. He supported areas that had a low population. Without this support and such schemes, many of the services needed, such as rural transport, water and sewerage or three-phase electricity, would not have been brought forward. I compliment the Minister on the pre-budget outlook and the new format. He will deal with the people of this nation with an even hand in the budget in a few weeks.

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