Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach partly answered my question in his reply to Deputy McLoughlin earlier. The programme for Government included a welcome section on job creation. It clearly stated that in excess of 200,000 jobs would be created by the Government and that 135,000 of those jobs would be created in the regions. That is not happening in the regions. My constituency colleague, the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Naughten, and I can confirm that if one visits a railway station in Carrick-on-Shannon, Roscommon or Longford at 6 a.m. one will see hundreds of people getting the train to travel to Dublin. Yesterday, in reply to a similar question, the Taoiseach spoke about increased employment. That is the case, and there is a drop in unemployment. The Taoiseach referred to Louth, Meath, Carlow, Kilkenny and Galway city, but there was no mention of any town in the midlands or west of Ireland. I have checked the figures. Very little job creation is happening in the midlands and the west. On the basis that there was a clear commitment on this from the Government and that the Government has put huge emphasis on balanced regional development, can the Taoiseach give an update on the current position in that regard?

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