Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I concur with the previous speaker. The constituency I represent needs a Government to deal with the issues we face. Just a couple of weeks ago, the Minister for Health told the House that greater and better use has to be made of Ennis hospital and other tier-two hospitals throughout the mid-west to avoid a catastrophe next winter at University Hospital Limerick. Shannon Airport and Shannon Development, which were founded to drive economic development throughout the mid-west, are not in a good place. Shannon Airport is on its knees. Shannon heritage sites, the legacy of Shannon Development, are closed, and some of them are not even scheduled to open this year. Those sites are not the heritage of those of us from the mid-west. They are the heritage of every Deputy in the House and everybody he or she represents in the House. I will vote for Deputy Micheál Martin and his Government to face those challenges and I will hold them to account in how they do so.

I am aware that Deputy Micheál Martin is justifiably proud of Cork, its heritage and its political traditions. Notwithstanding what is in the programme for Government and what is not, I ask that he govern in the republican tradition, pursue the prosperity of the whole nation and all its parts and, especially, cherish all the children of the nation equally, especially those whose special needs have been relegated and who have been left to their own devices in recent weeks.

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