Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Letterkenny Chamber of Commerce met Oireachtas Members at the end of last month to outline the development and growth challenges for business in Donegal and the north west. I travelled to Letterkenny last week to speak at the chamber's lunch, and the message from its members was absolutely clear, that significant shortfalls in transport infrastructure, the housing crisis and staff shortages are holding back progress in the region. Those challenges are interdependent and are the negative outcomes of historical political and policy neglect.

Despite these failures by the current and former Governments, there are fantastic home-grown innovators in Donegal, creating exciting opportunities in domestic and foreign domestic investment, FDI, enterprises. Imagine what could be achieved if a Government finally gripped the long-acknowledged connectivity deficits of the north west and addressed the fundamental housing and cost-of-living crises. Donegal, as the Taoiseach will know, has always suffered from excessively high levels of emigration. Add to that the shortfalls in the defective block scheme, the housing crisis and the cost-of-living crisis and we have a perfect storm. Young workers continue to emigrate. The skilled staff hired into the county face undue and sometimes impossible challenges to secure accommodation. These are old problems that have been manifested and multiplied into new crises this Government has yet to fully accept. They directly impact people's lives and quality of life and on the competitiveness, social cohesion and well-being of the region. What response has the Taoiseach to the challenges that have been laid out by the Letterkenny Chamber of Commerce? What commitment can he give not only to Donegal but to the north west as a whole to show that he has the willingness, ear, heart, stomach and ability to address all of this?

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