Noel Coonan (Tipperary North, Fine Gael)

Like the other speakers, I am glad to have an opportunity to comment on this. I am coming from the perspective of a representative in the mid-west area, despite being from north Tipperary. Often people forget that north Tipperary is very much part of the mid-west area.

We are coming from a background where on 28 July last the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Coughlan, launched the interim report of the mid-west task force. At that launch, she stated she would waste no time in consulting with her colleagues with a view to evaluate, consider and implement the task force report.

Almost seven months later we, as Oireachtas Members, joined the chairman of the task force and the chairman of Shannon Development in Limerick to discuss the matter. I listened in awe to the chairman of the task force, Mr. Brosnan, when he went on to outline his frustration, and that of the members of his board, with what was happening in the mid-west. In no uncertain terms, he sounded the alarm bells, stating how desperate was the situation.

I listened to Deputies here today state that we are scoring political points. I listened to the eminent Mr. Brosnan, who stated, in no uncertain terms, that the State agencies and the Government had failed the people of the mid-west. He went on to outline why. He stated that they were crying out for an initiative from the Government to give hope and confidence to the people of the region by supporting at least three of the 20 projects that he outlined, those being the international cargo hub for Shannon Airport, Plassey Technological Park in Limerick and the governance of Limerick city.

Mr. Brosnon went on to express his alarm at the number of people who had lost their jobs in the mid-west - over 38,000. We do not blame the Tánaiste. It goes back over the ten years of the Celtic tiger, when the Minister, Deputy O'Dea, and his colleagues totally abandoned the mid-west region and did not put the necessary development into it. Mr. Brosnan outlined that. He went as far as to say that if the those involved in the relevant State agencies were members of the Kerry Group, of which he was an eminent chief executive, they would be long gone. Those are startling words to come from any chairman of a task force who was appointed by the Government.

Mr. Brosnan went on to state that the situation was getting worse, we cannot continue to wait, the people of Limerick and of the mid-west region need jobs, and if we do not get jobs, the crime and the social deprivation will increase and reach enormous proportions in Limerick.

The chairman put it up to the Minister, Deputy O'Dea. This is not my quote, but I will remind him of what was said, that it is time that he, as figurehead Minister in the mid-west, behaved like Mighty Mouse in Dublin, not Mickey Mouse as happened.

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