P J Sheehan (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

This motion calls for real accountability and transparency in the spending of taxpayers' money in the transport sector and records that €19.25 billion has been spent over recent years. I am elected to represent Cork South-West and I can find no evidence of 1 cent of this money being spent in my constituency and the Minister will not take responsibility for answering these matters in this House which votes him this money to spend on the taxpayers' behalf for all the citizens of the country. Let me state that not one railway sleeper has been placed nor has a railway carriage travelled 1 cm in my constituency as a result of the spending of this €19.25 billion. In fact our west Cork railway system was taken from us almost 50 years ago by the then Fianna Fáil Government.

Not one square inch of asphalt has been laid by the National Roads Authority in my constituency. In fact given that it has spent all this money in developing roads between our cities, perhaps the Minister should consider renaming it the "intercity roads authority". It is no coincidence that investment in our rail network has been developed between the exact same cities often with the road and the rail line running beside each other serving the same towns and cities. The Government has abandoned large tracts of rural Ireland especially south west Cork. Louth, the wee county, is getting a much greater roads grant than Cork County Council which covers one eighth of the total area of the Republic. Where is the fairness in that?

The National Roads Authority has notions of working on the N71 Bandon to Inishannon road but according to its website this is subject to a "constraints study". This sounds to me like a new administrative term to describe constipation. In fact when I think about it, one way to describe the way the Government is running this economy is that it has changed from a Government with diarrhoea to a constipated Government with a bad smell.

I note that the Government amendment to this motion deletes all words after Dáil Éireann to substitute its own smug self-congratulatory words trying to convince us that nothing is wrong. Well, let me warn the Government that like the Berlin Wall when it falls, it is not in for a soft landing. If the Ministers opposite are not prepared to answer the questions of the elected representatives of the people in this House then it time to stop hiding behind bureaucratic walls and face the people. I commend the motion to the House.

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