Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

These apply in the west but they also apply in every other part of Ireland. The Central Statistics Office has released its figures, which I have no reason to doubt and which show that there are 4,000 fewer people working in the three counties to which I referred than there was in 2013.

The Taoiseach talks about farmers. We should have someone on an aeroplane to meet the agriculture Minister for in England. Yesterday, the beef barons of Ireland and England announced that cattle exported from Ireland to England would take €1 per kilogram less. This has effectively stopped our exports to England. We should have someone addressing that.

The fact is that the TEN-T funding for major infrastructural projects, such as Knock Airport in the Taoiseach's county, the ring road in Galway, and a main road from Dublin to Castlebar, which is needed, was stopped by this Government in 2011.

See this speech in context