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

The programme for Government included a clear commitment on balanced regional development, with an undertaking to create 175,000 jobs in the regions. The Taoiseach knows as well as I do that there is a serious issue with the availability of jobs in rural areas of the midlands and the west. It is almost easier to find a needle in a haystack than to secure a Government-backed job in counties such as Roscommon and Leitrim. Last year IDA Ireland paid out €93 million in grants, not one cent of which went to counties Roscommon, Longford and Meath. How often does the economic unit in the Department of the Taoiseach meet and does its agenda include discussion of the commitment to balanced regional development on which so much emphasis was placed in the programme for Government? Government supported jobs are badly needed in the region.

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