Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to pull the Minister up on one of the points he made. He said that he does not believe anyone will be alienated by the proposed public consultation process. The public consultation on the N20-M20 project, as the Minister knows, is under way at the moment. Due to the general data protection regulation, GDPR, requirements, letters could not be sent out to 5,000 householders to let them know the routes that were involved. There was a flyer-type system for getting the information out to households but it went to only 10% of the houses. People were ringing me to ask why they did not get a letter and why only two people in their community got it. Then it was decided to put the information in the local newspapers, including the Vale Star, the Weekly Observer, the Limerick Postand the Limerick Leader, where it got an uptake from people in the area who are not on social media, YouTube or whatever it is called, and all those other things. There are people in Ireland who do not need smartphones. There are people who do not hear about things unless they read about them in the newspaper.

They are sick of looking at television. They say it puts them to sleep because of all the spin. People in the Minister's area may be on social media, but people in my area get the newspapers. This is relevant to this amendment. The statistics show that newspaper circulation in our area has never dropped. The Minister might think we are backward because we read the papers. We have four newspapers in my area. Their circulation has never dropped because people in the community like to read them. They are not all on social media. The Minister is wrong about how to get information out to people.

I went back to the design team and explained this to them. The design team had to put this in the newspapers. They apologised because under the current system they could not send a letter to the 5,000 houses affected. I believe Deputy O'Brien is a good Minister. I believe he will listen and do the right thing. I ask him to look at this through my eyes. I will not look at it through his, because he is dealing with a different scenario. If he wants to see something through my eyes, he is welcome to visit. We can accommodate two households in our house under the rules. He can see the difference in connectivity between the different areas.

Project Ireland 2040 was already voted on by the previous Government, led by Fine Gael and supported by Fianna Fáil. People were not allowed a free vote on it. I ask the Government to have an open vote on the plan. Let people throughout the country see who votes for it and who does not. Do not apply a whip. Let there be a free vote. Let people in rural settings see what their Deputies think. Let this be the responsibility of each individual Deputy.

I will finish on a point someone else raised earlier. I will welcome any person who comes to my county and provides 2,500 jobs and five disability services. I will not hear criticism from a Deputy who would not know my area if he passed through it. I would welcome ten more like J.P. McManus, given what he has done for Limerick.

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