Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I remember that speech well and I remember visiting Bausch & Lomb that day. It was a very positive day. We were announcing additional jobs for the region, and those jobs have been delivered and have happened.

In the past couple of years, there have been some very significant and positive developments for Waterford, which I know the Deputy will acknowledge. We have made some real progress on developing a technological university for the south east, centred on Waterford. I am hopeful, if not confident, that it is only a matter of months before that designation can happen. I think that is really important and will make a real difference, not just for Waterford city but also for the south east as a whole. We have seen the opening of the Dunmore wing in the hospital. Only four hospitals in the country had a major extension in the past three or four years, and Waterford University Hospital was one of those, with the Dunmore wing, which is a very significant addition to services at the hospital. We have had the commitment of nearly €30 million to the north quays, a project which Deputy Shanahan, Senator Cummins and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, are very committed to. I am glad that allocation has been made as that can be transformative for the city.

We have also seen some very significant job creation, led by the IDA, in the past couple of years. There has been a 24% increase in the number of IDA jobs in the past four or five years in the south east, with nearly 1,000 IDA jobs announced between Wexford, Waterford and Kilkenny only in the last year, so significant progress has been made. As the Deputy knows, an allocation was made to the airport but, for reasons beyond the control of the Government, it has not been possible for the airport to draw that down.

Crucially, the Sláintecare regional integrated care organisations which were signed off by the Government in 2019 re-established the south east, if you like, as a regional integrated care organisation area, which is something I strongly support.

In regard to the analysis the Deputy raised, I have read that analysis and I am familiar with it. I think it is incomplete because it discounts, or counts for nothing, certain projects. It does not count the national broadband plan, for example. I do not know how much of the national broadband plan is being invested in County Waterford but I think it is a pretty significant amount, and I can check that. That analysis does not take account of that, for example. It also discounts any investments that are less than €25 million or €20 million and, of course, an analysis that does that is going to skew investment towards the big cities, where the big projects happen. In a lot of counties, and in counties with lower populations than Dublin or Cork, the projects are smaller - they are €5 million projects, €10 million projects and €15 million projects - and in that analysis they are counted as nothing. That is incorrect. It is almost like saying that if money goes to a sports club, a community centre or a small bypass, it does not count, and I think that analysis, therefore, is flawed.

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