Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I commend my colleague, Deputy Simon Coveney, on the work and effort he has put into this policy and his commitment to it. He has put much effort into it and has really thought it through. I am disappointed the Government did not see fit, in these economic times, to accept his motion. People are looking for hope and leadership and for ideas from everybody in the country. This is an opportunity. Deputy Coveney and the Fine Gael Party are presenting this policy to the Government. It is not perfect but the Government may amend it. It should at least take it on board and consider which parts it can implement. If ever there was a time for a bit of hope and good news, this is it. If we want people to feel that somebody is doing something about the economic crisis, this policy is the way to do it. It proves that there are other people in the House who have ideas. I compliment Deputy Coveney on the work and effort he has put into it.

He talked about broadband. I live in an area where there are many industries. There are industries in places such as Erris in County Mayo in which members of staff must go to a street corner to pick up a signal so they can send and receive messages on the Internet. That is not acceptable. We never had as much money here as we have had for the past ten years. Eircom and other companies provided broadband that did not work and did not do the job it was intended to do. It is wrong that we are still here talking about some parts of Ireland that do not have broadband when we should be moving on to the next stage. We expect industries to come to rural Ireland, create jobs and get people into the workplace. We expect companies to go to the Gaeltacht areas, yet we do not have the most basic infrastructure. It is the same with the roads; they are not there.

A former Deputy of this House, Myles Staunton, put a company together in Ireland and America. He went to Mayo County Council for planning permission for a peat power plant which would have created many jobs in Killala. Mayo County Council granted the planning application, but an objection was made by a third party and the application went to An Bord Pleanála, which decided it would not grant it on the basis that the building of the peat power plant was not in accordance with Government policy. Government policy must change. We must consider every area in which we can create employment and in which energy can be used. Yesterday in my clinic I saw a man who has lived in a certain part of Mayo for 20 years and for all that time has been talking to Mayo County Council about wind energy. He has the money and the investors. He has the people who want to get involved in this business. Yet Mayo County Council does not have a proper policy and there is no proper national policy, even though the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, is a member of the Green Party and has been in Government for almost two years now. We do not know what Government policy on wind energy is. We need to become self-sufficient. We should not have to buy oil and bring our basic raw materials in from other countries.

Even at this late stage we need to investigate what can be done for the country by the Corrib gas field. How can that gas be used to support industries here? How can it be used to benefit the people of the west of Ireland, particularly Mayo, where it is coming from? I hope the Government will try to make sure we get the infrastructure we need.

With regard to the N5, representatives of industries such as Allergan and Baxter have come up to meet the Taoiseach and the Minister for Transport, Deputy Dempsey, as their goods are being damaged on the way out of Mayo. They are transporting them all over the world, but they cannot transport them from the west to Dublin because the proper infrastructure is not in place.

Deputy Coveney has tabled proposals tonight about-----

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