Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this opportunity to speak and I thank Deputy O'Sullivan. Brexit or no Brexit, this infrastructure should be have been in place down through the years. The Minister may recall that during negotiations on the programme for Government one of the first things to be discussed was putting the west of Ireland into the TEN-T funding. Alas, as per usual, the people who do not realise where the west of Ireland is did not even bother their - I will not say what - even looking to Europe to include it. Currently we have Shannon Foynes Port, Shannon Airport, the Port of Cork, Cork Airport, Dublin Port and Dublin Airport. Going right through the midlands and heading for the west of Ireland the Port of Galway was downgraded, Killala was not even put on the map and Killybegs has not been done. This area does not have the infrastructure in place, especially if Brexit happens. Do people from Mullingar to Castlebar to Westport not deserve a motorway in the same way as people do in Cork? I welcome the Cork to Mallow road being done because it needs to be done. I have heard about the M18. When I came in here in 2014 it was announced in the budget and, lo and behold, last year it was announced again, even though the machine drivers were looking for jobs elsewhere.

The problem is the infrastructure deficit. The Government talks about balanced regional development. Rosslare Europort needs the whole shebang of customs infrastructure and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in the event we cannot go through England. Last week I spoke to people in business, the great people in small and medium-sized enterprises, when they brought in their foods. A small and medium-sized enterprise that needs a certificate from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine waits eight or nine days, but a Larry Goodman-type tycoon can work away and it will be there on site. If we are to help in situations like this we have to put the infrastructure in place. It is in the programme for Government but it is not being done. I would love to say a motion would do it but, to be honest about it, we will vote on a motion which will probably be won, but it is a feel-good factor because, by God, if the Government does not do it when it is in its programme for Government it will hardly do it for a motion.

I cannot understand why the likes of the Port of Galway, looking out at the Atlantic and next stop the United States, has been downgraded to a category two port instead of bringing it up and making it a proper port. One day I saw three cruise liners in Dublin Port, which held 13,000 people. It was great. The city was buzzing. Would it not be great to do this in Killybegs, Killala, Galway, Cork or Rosslare? It can be done in Foynes. This is about what we call balanced regional development. What is happening is all talk about what we will do but it is not done.

The western arc has been talked about. Once we jump off the M18 below Tuam we are back to an ordinary road so, in actual fact, the likes of Ireland West Airport Knock will struggle because, unfortunately, it does not have the road infrastructure in place. From there we go to Letterkenny and on to Derry. The UK has decided it will build a proper road from Derry to Aughnacloy and we could put a spur out to the M1. People in Cavan and Monaghan are left out. We have drawn a line from Limerick to the east to Cork with TEN-T infrastructure. The way it has been done comes up along to Dublin and on to Newry and the rest of the country does not matter. We do matter. Someone might wake up sometime. I heard a story a few weeks ago when the Taoiseach stated the money was not there at the time. He was right that the money might not have been there at the time, but the Government was able to put a line from Navan to Dublin when, economically, there was no better business case for doing it than doing work in the west of Ireland. The reason was we have people in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport who, once they go outside the M50, have no satnav with them.

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