Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

It has been clear for some time where the Labour Party stands. I know there are many genuine rural Deputies in the Fine Gael Party and the question for them is whether they will allow the Labour Party tail wag the Fine Gael dog. Sitting idly by while the areas they represent are decimated will not be accepted by the people. I call on the Deputies in question to make a stand within their party and insist the policies to which I have referred are reversed. In the meantime, the Fianna Fáil Party will continue to fight the cause from townland to townland and from parish to parish in defence of our heritage. We will bring the fight to every county council, the Dáil and Seanad and, if necessary, Europe because we know this battle is about the heart of our nation and the survival of so much that makes us what we are.

The choice facing us is a simple one. Do Deputies believe in balanced spatial development or in decimating small communities and destroying much of what makes this country unique in the name of a type of modernity that is, in fact, post-modern in nature because its policies are from the 20th rather than 21st century?

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