Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Minister to address the fact that these two areas have been downgraded to lagging region status. She should ignore the core performance indicator of her Government. It is not just or fair to citizens living in the counties in the western and northern parts of this country that we are having this conversation. The Minister is not going to admit that the European Union has downgraded those areas to 177th place out of 240. Only for the Business Postreleasing this information, we would not know it. Will the Minister release to the citizens of Ireland the document the European Union has provided in order that we can have transparent government and see why the European Union is downgrading regions of Ireland in terms of their ability to compete? That is the measure of how people can live. More people are returning to some rural areas and regions, but the driving force behind that has been Covid. The driving force has been the fact that people cannot live in Dublin any more because the cost of doing so has gone through the roof.

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