Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the fishing organisations for the peaceful protest in Cork yesterday. I was disappointed to think we have two senior Ministers, Deputies Coveney and McGrath, and our Taoiseach, who I found out afterwards was canvassing around Dublin Bay North, did not bother to meet with the peaceful protesters in Dublin. No Fine Gael politician turned up, which is a disappointment, but remember, when the election comes, they will be knocking on their doors.

Today, I must speak about last Monday. Councillors in Cork county were handed a comprehensive independent report compiled by the All-Island Research Observatory at Maynooth University, which has vindicated every word from my mouth since my election to this House in 2016. Cork county has been getting the lowest funding from the state of any county in this country. Many of the councillors who read this report already knew the perilous funding situation coming from Government, but one Fine Gael councillor had the cheek to try to insult us, as Deputies, by telling us to get off our butts and get the funding to Cork county, even though it is his party that has been in Government with Fianna Fáil for decades and has stood over this national scandal.

This damning report of successive Government failures states that we have the lowest CLÁR funding per capita, this being funding for disadvantaged areas, despite having the highest CLÁR population. The report also states that Cork county has the fourth lowest LEADER funding allocation in the State, despite being one of the largest counties. The report goes on to state that Cork county has continuously ended up with the lowest share of grants in the State, with massive short falls in rural regeneration funds, village renewal funds, local improvement scheme funding and greenway funding. The report states that the roads in Cork county will take 52 years – remember that Tánaiste – to bring them up to standard. It states we need €750 million to catch up with the rest of the country.

West Cork roads are appalling. Roads in Bandon, Dunmanway, Bantry and Skibbereen are a danger to anyone who travels on them by car and people are incensed. Bypasses in Innishannon, the completion of the southern bypass in Bandon, the new northern bypass in Bandon and bypasses in Bantry all lay idle as no money is being allocated in spite of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil politicians making announcements, year in, year out, for decades, of funding becoming available. The people of Cork county are paying more taxes than any of our county counterparts. We have the highest motor tax and the highest carbon tax rate than any other county. Simply put, the people of Cork county are paying to make sure that the rest of the country’s infrastructure is being put in place.

When I raised the lack of funding getting into Cork county with the Taoiseach a number of months ago, I asked him to set up a task force for west Cork to see whether a task force could even the playing pitch; the Taoiseach refused. What was the Taoiseach hiding? Why did he not want this task force? Was he afraid it would end up with a report like the one we have now? Is Micheál Martin scared of the truth and the proof of the Government's neglect of west Cork? Today, I ask the Tánaiste, why is Cork county being treated appalling by successive Governments in relation to funds for our county. Will the Tánaiste accept this damning independent report of underfunding by successive Governments and its findings and what action will he take to rectify this shocking wrongdoing?

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