Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

This is the most important thing that has happened for the region. I acknowledge that the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Power, at least took the time to come in and make a contribution, but Deputy O'Dea is the senior Minister in the region and I wanted to ask him a couple of questions, had he been present. Where are the 700 jobs, for example, that he announced on national radio when Dell closed? Where is the multi-million public private project he announced, in the context of regeneration for Limerick? The people of the mid-west are sick of being led by the nose on issues such as this and being told things are happening when clearly they are not. In the same context, we were given all types of reassurances by the senior Minister in the region about Dell. By the time he went to Texas with the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Coughlan, it was too late. The stable door had closed, the horse had bolted and Dell had already made its decision.

We will all work together in the region on this issue, but we need our most senior Government people to be working with us and I am very disappointed that the Minister, Deputy O'Dea, is not here. Some of the specifics have been referred to already, and Mr. Brosnan highlighted some of them in his report. One of them was the Lynx project which has been referred to in the context of the Shannon cargo hub. Part of what is involved are temperature controlled warehouses to store medical products, to attract biomedical and biopharmaceutical industries. We already have a record in that regard. As was mentioned, we have the Vistakon plant in Plassey. There are 70 acres behind that plant and that area needs to be upgraded in order to attract similar industries. The mid-west region has a record of attracting multinationals, as well as the experience. Practical measures are needed such as developing the site behind Vistakon and providing the €7 million, as identified in relation to the Lynx project and the Shannon cargo hub. We urgently need a specific response on those issues.

The mid-west region is one of innovation. We have done things for ourselves - the Shannon Airport initiative was the start of this endeavour. We need to examine how this was all built up. It took a long time and we are not going to let it continue to go rapidly downhill, as is happening at the moment. We are looking for specific blocks or ledges that will stop the downhill momentum to give us the opportunity to pull ourselves back up. That is what is being sought in the region. We have a good deal of co-operation with the third level institutions, FÁS, VECs, etc., in the region. They are working together, but need the Government to take their issues seriously. We need to ensure that they get the response they need.

On the Shannon Airport issue, it is true that figures declined by 12% to 14% in 2009 and it is expected that they will decline again in the coming year. The threats from Ryanair are very real. Jobs were announced yesterday in Cork and Farranfore now makes more profit than Shannon. There is a real concern that it will become a regional airport. Shannon's potential is enormous as is the need for it in the country. We need a balance between the east and the west. Shannon Airport is a key infrastructural access point for that and it needs to be taken seriously. We do not need the body running Shannon Airport to be called the Dublin Airport Authority.

The region's needs have to be prioritised, and there is major consensus in this regard among all mid-west public representatives. Most of us here, for example, attended a meeting recently between Mr. Christoph Mueller of Aer Lingus and the workers' representatives at Shannon. We are all committed to supporting the proposals coming from the workers' representatives. We all listened to Mr. Mueller saying there needs to be an injection of support for tourism in the mid-west and along the entire western seaboard. Again, that has to be driven and led by the Government, but at the moment we are not getting that response. Mr. Mueller is experienced regarding the European market and he can see the significant potential for tourism in the entire western part of Ireland, but at present tourists trying to get to the west are going into Dublin. They should be flying into Shannon Airport and immediately accessing places such as Killarney, Galway and all the other beauty spots that are unique to Ireland. If we could increase our international tourism figures even by a small percentage, it would make all the difference to the Shannon region.

All of us here know the detail of what precisely is required to achieve this. All we need is for the Government to respond on the very specific promises that were made, such as the announcement by the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Deputy Martin Cullen, of a €53 million tourism and economic plan for Shannon. In the event, all we got was €6 million. We just need such specifics addressed. I see Deputy Timmy Dooley nodding his head, because there is agreement among all parties in the region about what is needed. The mid-west region can use funding well if it can get it.

I have referred to the Shannon workers, but the redundant Dell workers have not been properly included in this process either. They should have had a central role in the task force. The task force is primarily led by industrialists and people at that level, but the workers represent a crucial voice regarding the spending of the globalisation fund. My colleague, Mr. Alan Kelly, MEP, brought that to the attention of the powers that be in Europe and while I acknowledge the Government's role in this regard, it also needed that catalyst from Mr. Kelly and other MEPs to ensure that the workers could talk to officials in Brussels and that the fund was released.

There is a now a relatively short timeframe within which that fund has to be spent, however. I recently met with members of the redundant Dell workers' group and they are not happy with the top-down arrangement that is in place. They are to meet the Minister of State, Deputy Dara Calleary, next Monday and that is welcome, but many of the decisions are already made before they are consulted. Such consultation will take place under the auspices of a so-called steering group that has been established which will include worker representative bodies. However, many of the structures will already be in place before the workers are listened to. They are lobbying for the type of supports they need to be made available to them, not just the supports the university, the institute of technology, the VEC or FÁS believe they should have.

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