Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)

Not for the first time, a Government reply has totally baffled me. Does the Minister of State understand why I feel misled by his answer, in which he described the task force's recommendations as "helpful" and thanked the chairman of the task force, Mr. Brosnan, for his work? I am baffled because a full six months after the Government received the report, not one of its 20 recommendations has been implemented.

Does the Minister of State accept this makes it appear to the House as though the task force was a cosmetic exercise in the first instance? It makes it appear as though the Government is not taking seriously the entire issue of the jobs crisis in the mid-west. Does the Minister of State accept that when one compares and contrasts the Government's inactivity regarding this report and its 20 recommendations with the way it managed to get finance through to the banks, it demonstrates a lack of credibility on the Government's part, particularly in desolated regions such as the mid-west?

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