Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Shanahan for putting this Bill together, as well as Cáit in our office for the help she gave him. I also thank the Government for accepting this Bill. If passed into law, I hope one of its effects would be to contribute towards ensuring a fairer share-out of Exchequer funding for the various regions of Ireland. Hopefully, it will help to show exactly where our money is going and whether this is to the advantage of everybody in the country, and not just to those in the more affluent parts.

Let us take as an example the ring road in Galway city, which the Leas-Cheann Comhairle will know very well.

That has been on the go for 24 years. In October 1999, the first application was made for that ring road to possibly be built in Galway. We are now in 2023 going into 2024, with more than €50 million spent, and we still do not even have planning permission for this ring road. If that road was proposed for Cork or Dublin, it would be built now. Galway and the west always seem to be put on the never-never. We need a decision on that as soon as possible.

Take, for instance, the amount of money that has been spent on Dublin over the last decades with €750 million on the Port Tunnel, €728 on the red and green Luas lines, €368 million on the Luas cross-city and upwards of €5 billion earmarked for the Metro North. All Galway got in that period of time was the Gort-Tuam motorway and €300 million.

Sport is close to everybody's heart in this House. Over the years, Croke Park received €103 million, Aviva Stadium got €191 million and other grounds, such as Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Thomond Park, Semple Stadium, the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick and Irish Independent Park in Cork, also got massive State funding. In the west, we eventually got €20 million after a long battle to redevelop the sports ground for Connacht Rugby in Galway. I want to compliment Deputy Ring who did much work on that with Connacht Rugby. He was a great supporter of Connacht Rugby and that needs to be acknowledged as well.

Whatever metric one goes by, there is a yawning gap between the way the northern and western region is treated compared with the two other regions and particularly compared with the eastern and midland regions. For instance, the Central Statistics Office's, CSO's, latest survey for income and living conditions for 2022 showed a massive difference in average household incomes depending on where a person lives. Households in the eastern and midland regions had a median household disposable income of more than €53,000 compared with less then €39,000 in the northern and western region and less than €43,000 in the southern region. That is a massive 38% difference between the income of the average family along the western seaboard and that of their counterparts in Dublin and the east.

According the International Monetary Fund, IMF, Ireland comes second in the world in its list of countries with the highest GDP per capitain 2023. Eurostat information also placed it second only to Luxembourg among EU countries last year. GDP per capitais a popular metric for the average prosperity and well-being of a country of the region. There is a whole library of statistics showing how it is also the region of Ireland where people are at most of risk of poverty and social exclusion. There is less work available and there is greater material and social deprivation.

In terms of health, the west and north-west of the country suffer from the highest mortality rates from cancer. There are 12 minor injuries units built around the country. There are three in Cork and there is none in Galway, which is nearly the same size as Cork. It just shows what is happening in this country wherein the west is always lagging behind the other parts of the country.

Earlier this year, Professor Michael Kerin, a leading cancer expert, described University Hospital Galway as "One of the busiest Model 4 Hospitals in the country, and undoubtedly the one with the poorest infrastructure." He pointed out that hospital was built in the 1950s and many of the wards that were built in the 1950s are still in use today. The cancer patients are in a queue or competition with the emergency patients to actually get access to care. With proper infrastructure, the northern and western region will continue to lag behind in terms of its ability to attract investment and create jobs. It is said that a rising tide lifts boats, but there is definitely a hole below the water line in the western and northern region that needs to be fixed before it will take full advantage of any future improvements in the national economy. I know this Bill will not change anything overnight, but it might lead to a greater overview of where our money is actually going and ensure there is a fairer distribution of it.

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