Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Tánaiste has given me everything that is being done. I accept that these things are being done, which is a great credit to everybody who has been involved, but there are areas, such as the question of the ports at Galway, Ros a' Mhíl and Killybegs, that need attention. The IDA has a park in Athenry in my constituency but the land is not serviced. A connection has to be brought from Athenry to a sewage treatment plant in Galway, which is not the right way of doing things and not the right way to strategically plan. As an example, we should have a sewage treatment plant in the east of the county to serve the Ardaun corridor. We need to take this, put a bit of a head on it and say what we are going to do over the next five years. The Tánaiste mentioned the railway. There is also great potential in tapping structural funds from Europe as, for a region such as this, they are 60% rather than 40% co-funded by the EU because of its designation as a lagging region. The opportunity is there and I would like to see Government focusing some attention on it through the establishment of a new task force or the revitalising of the Atlantic economic corridor task force and giving it some teeth to deliver. The Western Development Commission and regional assembly should be empowered to do the same.

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