Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We can quote statistics all day long, but when one drills down into the macro statistics, we have to accept that there are pockets in Ireland that have not benefited. In Deputy Eugene Murphy's constituency of Roscommon, for example, some 900 people leave the county every morning to travel to work in Dublin. There is a huge regional imbalance. I put it to the Minister that 51% of the jobs created last year were in the greater Dublin area and that 45% of GDP is generated in that area. There is a huge disparity between rural Ireland and Dublin. When one city generates 45% of GDP, there is a major problem. It is a problem for rural parts of Ireland and equally a problem for Dublin because it is congested and spilling in on top of itself. We need to have system in which there is a genuine focus on shifting job creation from the Dublin area to the peripheral areas. That is not happening at the speed and with the timing needed to ensure rural Ireland will get its fair share in the upturn which we all accept is happening.

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