Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am rather sorry to see Deputy John Paul Phelan announce his departure from the House. I wish him and his domestic constituency the very best. I have a good deal of sympathy for his predicament. Like Paudie Coffey, Michael D'Arcy and John Deasy before him, genuine embarrassment was felt to have made electoral promises that simply evaporated at the Cabinet table. For all the blather about public spending procedures and processes, cost-benefit analysis and business plans, capital spending appears to follow Ministers' whims, largely in Dublin but in this Government Cork has had a good haul too.

It is well worth looking at the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform's capital tracker to see this in action. My region is not alone. Voters in large swathes of Ireland, particularly the midlands and north west, appear to have come to the same conclusion. Fairness does not extend to the Cabinet table. This is why Deputy Róisín Shortall walked out of the Government in 2012, sickened by a Minister nabbing two primary care centres for his own bailiwick. No wonder the hospital groupings have proved unstable and, indeed, detrimental in Waterford's case. They continue to corrode progress on the development of Sláintecare. It is why Dublin's Grangegorman campus got the nod while Waterford's Carriganore campus remains in fields. It is why a 24-7 service was delivered in Limerick by a bountiful Michael Noonan but was stymied in Waterford. It is why public-private partnership, PPP, construction contracts to deliver academic teaching buildings in Technological University Dublin and Munster Technological University lashed on, yet those in the south east are still in the vortex of process, plans, procurement and, to paraphrase President Biden, whatever malarkey you are having yourself. Three programmes for Government have been treated like an à la cartemenu by the alikadoos of Dublin.

No wonder the likes of Deputy Phelan are heading for the door.

This year, €12 billion will be spent on capital projects in the name of Ireland. Dublin is less than one third of this country but it will chow down on two thirds of the spending, the same as it ever was. When I challenge the Taoiseach or members of the Government on this expropriation, I am the one accused of being the parish pump politician. I am afraid that if the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform's capital tracker is to be believed, the parish pump artisans sit at Cabinet. They are the ones who refuse to share out the fruits of our Republic. It is not the Mexicans who are stealing Ireland's regions’ futures. It is €12 billion this year and €165 billion by 2030. Some 8.9% of the population live in the south east. There is not a hope in hell that we are seeing more than 3% of this money, and the same goes for the midlands and the north west.

Waterford and the south east are still waiting for basic investment in our hospitals, airport, ports, the N24 and N25 and our single university. It is time to deliver something - anything. Without a fair share of capital investment, the losing regions are being left to stew in their own anger. If that anger is not remediated, it will find its voice come the next election.

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