Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will quote the Minister on that. However, the fact it has taken so long to deliver serious public transport plans such as the metro north undermines the plan. While we claim Dublin to be a European and world city, the fact that one still arrives into Dublin Airport and does not have direct rail access into Dublin city undermines our capacity as a country to sell ourselves.

As for flood defences, the Minister mentioned all the work that has been done on the flood management plans and so on, but again, it is evident how slow this process is. Serious flood issues arose in Cork in 2010 that are the subject of court cases at present, but there has not yet been much investment in flood management in Cork. While some good work has been done in rural areas, there is much more to do, and the planning is taking a long time. I am aware of this from experience in my native county, where a flood issue arose in Crossmolina in 2007 that only now is being resolved in 2015, which I welcome as part of this plan. In my home town of Ballina, a serious flood issue has not been included in this plan because the Office of Public Works has not got around to drawing up its local flood management plans as yet.

On the mid-term review, I stated earlier that the Minister was purring about the fiscal position. However, the Minister must focus his Department on the public service reform side of things and on the system's ability to deliver on a plan such as this. Unless the system of delivery has changed and unless the Minister has reformed the system of delivery, we will get what we have, namely, anà la carteplan with no delivery dates to which Members can hold a Government agency or Department to account, with vague budget figures beside it and with little precision in the budgets pertaining to many projects. This is why, as a Parliament - as an Oireachtas - Members cannot make a proper account of it or hold it to review. Members cannot make a proper judgment on it given the flimsiness of the document presented to them.

I note that a date still has not been provided for delivery of the national children's hospital. It has dogged the present Government, as it did previous Governments-----

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