Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As I have only three minutes, I will be brief. When making decisions, one must first look at the recipe. As the saying goes, "He who pays the piper calls the tune." Some 37% of the European funding has to be spent on climate and 20% must be spent on digital, which means 57% of the spend is tied up. When it is drawing up its plans, the Government will have to do so according to the rules laid down. Otherwise, it will not be able to draw down the funding. It would be a pity to leave €915 million behind us.

I would like to touch on a few issues. Retrofitting of houses is mentioned. The reality is that the worst 20% of houses in this State need more than retrofitting; work is needed on the basic fabric of those houses. We cannot look only at insulation and things like that. We need to make those houses fit and suitable for people to live in, with no draughts and so on. In that connection, we need to look at how these projects are tendered. There should be a facility to ensure that once again the small builders of Ireland can get involved. We need a smaller procurement process than is currently in place.

The next issue I would like touch on is regional equity. We need regional equity and all boats to rise together. I regret that is not always going to happen. I note a reference to regional equity and 5G technologies to drive a greener, move innovative Ireland. That is all very fine if the Government insists that every area gets 5G technology and that it is not reserved for a coverage of 90% of the population that works out at a small percentage of the land mass. When one factors in the cities, that accounts for a large part of the population but there are large parts of the country that are relatively sparsely populated. We must have an Ireland for all.

When looking at capital projects, there are two criteria, one of which is how badly needed they are. At the moment some of those badly needed projects take years to get through planning owing to objections, court cases and so on. The second criterion, on which it is not proposed to spend money, is how quickly can we get any project worth doing up and built, particularly over the coming two or three years. There is an accumulating problem of projects not being delivered and underspends on the capital side, in part due to Covid, but even before that underspends were becoming endemic.

I am happy to see all of the investment in Cork rail and Kent Station, the electrification of the commuter line and the doubling of the line from Glounthaune to Midleton. It is a great idea. I cannot say anything against it. I just wish the western rail corridor had been included as an add-on, a cheap add-on, at a cost of €150 million, to connect the Mayo towns of Ballina, Castlebar and Westport with the Roscommon towns and Galway city. We need regional equity. What we are getting is petty change. The western rail corridor needs to be included. We need to get it done. We own the line and everything is ready to rock and roll. Let us do it now.

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