Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is looking at Tipperary through rose-tinted glasses. The real issue is in the Minister's last answer where she referred to the south-east region of Carlow, Kilkenny and Tipperary. In an earlier answer, she said we were in the mid-west region. That is the problem with Tipperary town. It is on the border of the mid-west and the south east. We are falling between all stools. We do not have the jobs in Tipperary town, we do not have the IDA bringing visitors down and we do not have the factories either. The Minister is looking through the figures and cosying them up to suit whatever she wants to say herself. I gave her figures. I gave her the deprivation indexes. Tipperary town and its environs have been left behind badly over 25 to 30 years and it has not got the industry. The Minister can quote figures from the mid-west or the south east, but I ask her to focus on west Tipperary, including Tipperary town. The jobs are not there. While we have thousands of foreign direct investment jobs in Clonmel and other parts of Tipperary, for which we are grateful, I am talking about west Tipperary, which is languishing behind. The town is not being supported at national level or at local level by the county council. We need support. We are crying out for it.

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