Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I commend both Ministers of State on an excellent insight into the Estimates. It is good to have an opportunity to speak to them here today. Later this afternoon we will see the launch of the July stimulus, which is all about securing jobs, securing the viability of businesses and attempting to address regional imbalance across Ireland. Political commentators and economists are telling us that the way to deal with the crisis we face is to borrow money and subsequently to spend that money on capital projects. It has never been as cheap or as opportunistic to borrow money, with sovereign finance now available at nominal rates just above 0%. In reality, we have a blueprint for getting the country back on its feet that is Project Ireland 2040. It is further copperfastened by the current programme for Government.

On the back of Covid-19 we have the opportunity, and possibly our best chance ever, to truly address rural imbalance and especially some of the regional and structural deficiencies that haunt counties such as Longford. In Longford we have waited ten years for the N4 upgrade. It is one of the final pieces of major road infrastructure that needs to be completed. It is probable that every industrialist or investor who has travelled on that short section of road will say that it is one of the single biggest impediments to foreign direct investment in Longford and the wider region. Covid-19 has challenged us on an awful lot of levels. It has challenged us to look at how we live and how we function. It has also challenged us as a Government to do better and to ensure proper regional growth and development will, in time, take the strain off our big cities and urban centres. The N4 is the big ticket item for County Longford at the moment.

We also note that our second and third largest towns in the county, Edgeworthstown and Ballymahon, are both effectively at a standstill with further development because both require new sewage treatment plant upgrades. The challenge for Longford as a county, and for many other similar-sized counties, is to try to kick-start commercial house building activity within the county once again. We have not had a three-bedroom semi-detached house built in Longford in more than 11 years. This is the standard-bearer in commercial house building. There is a difficulty for any developer who wants to build a scheme in Ballymahon or Edgeworthstown now because Irish Water would inflict heavy and punitive charges onto that developer in an attempt to finance the upgrade of those sewage treatment plants. Both of those projects need to be addressed.

Staying in Ballymahon, it is more than two and a half years since the county council submitted a request for a new fire station in the town. Since then Center Parcs has opened in Ballymahon, which is the largest new tourism project in Europe, let alone in Ireland. When it is fully operational, the park attracts 2,000 visitors to the town each week. It is simply unbelievable to think that the town does not have a modern and up-to-date fire station at this stage.

Moving on to Longford town and out towards the Dublin Road and still within the 40 mph speed limit, houses there were built more than 30 years ago that have still not been able to connect to the main sewers. These houses have extremely deficient and archaic sceptic tanks. Within the town confines, two of our oldest and proudest estates, Teffia Park and Annaly Park, have sewerage systems that are creaking. Going across to south Longford and to Lanesborough, there is an issue with the rising main leading to the reservoir that serves up to 4,000 houses in the south Longford area and into Longford town. At one point this was at the top of the list for an upgrade, but suddenly Irish Water appointed a new contractor, and because the work would have required cutting through limestone and the contractor only likes to work with clay-based projects, it has fallen down the pecking order.

How we respond to Covid-19 and the challenges it presents will define us as a nation. We have an opportunity as elected Members in this House to make the right decision on so many levels: the right decision for rural Ireland and, more importantly the right decision for future generations.

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