Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

Such a system possesses no logic. It would make much more sense to give that young woman sufficient support to enable her to keep the business ticking over by using whatever she would get on the dole. Subsequently, after one or two years, or however long it will take, the business will become viable again. While this is a single example, that person's experience could be multiplied 100 or 1,000 times over in the region and many more times nationwide.

I seek a practical response from the Government to the issues I have raised. While I have been speaking in general about the region, a couple of specific and important issues arise within Limerick itself. One issue concerns a boundary extension and all five Deputies for Limerick East have signed a letter requesting the establishment of a commission to consider this issue. This matter must be furthered rapidly by the Government because Limerick is unable to compete with other cities unless its environs in their entirety are incorporated within the city limits. At present, several major sites such as the University of Limerick, Crescent Shopping Centre and the major hospital at Dooradoyle hospital all are located within the administrative area of Limerick city and this matter must be addressed urgently.

In addition, the Limerick regeneration agencies must receive the funding they require to redevelop. I note that a body that was set up by the Government under the chairmanship of John Fitzgerald has produced beautiful reports. However,the agencies now are stuck because they lack sufficient funding to develop the projects that have been identified and people are becoming disillusioned. Were regeneration to be properly funded, it would be possible to employ thousands of additional people in the mid-west region in the morning. There are many areas in the mid-west in which people wish to work and to use and build on their strengths. However, I refer to the 20 recommendations of a task force that was set up by the Government and which gave its interim report last July. The need for its chairman to go public to state the Government has not responded to a single recommendation constitutes a huge indictment on the Government's response. I welcome today's debate because it should initiate an urgent response that will deal with the specific issues that must be addressed in the mid-west to bring it back to being the strong region it was, can be and will be in the future the correct response is provided.

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