Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Like the previous speaker, I congratulate the Regional Group on this important legislation, particularly Deputy Shanahan for all the work he has done on it. It is driven by an awareness that the south east has been one of the areas which has suffered. I am from the mid-west and luckily the mid-west was represented at Cabinet relatively recently by Michael Noonan. Unfortunately, that is how politics works in Ireland but fortunately for the mid-west it was represented relatively recently by Michael Noonan. There is nobody at Cabinet now and you can see it. You can see where money is being spent in the country and it accords with where there is a bum on a seat in Cabinet. It should not be that basic but it is.

Go down and look at the Dunkettle roundabout and look at how much Cork has benefited from a presence at Cabinet. Dublin, obviously, is the capital city but even in Dublin there is a disparity in areas depending on representation. I do not know whether politics should be that base or maybe all politics is local and there is no getting away from it. It would be wrong of me to drag the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach, Deputy Ring, into the debate as he cannot contribute to it but I presume he has experience of that as a former Cabinet Minister.

Undoubtedly, there is regional disparity. We look at Dublin growing and growing beyond its capabilities to grow. That is creating huge pressures on people already in Dublin or coming to Dublin. Finding a job here is the easy part. Finding a place to live, a school, a GP and so on is much more difficult. There are other areas in Ireland where there is still much scope for development and where development could be carried out more easily but, partly, or perhaps largely, because they do not have a representative in the Cabinet, it is not considered. It should not be like that.

The same disparity applies even when there are natural limits, such as the lack of water in Dublin. We are planning to pipe water to Dublin from the mid-west - the environmental effects of carrying out this multibillion euro project are very dubious indeed - instead of looking at moving some developments to the mid-west.

I could make the same point with regard to housing in my own constituency. Undoubtedly, the State has a duty under international law to accept people who have been granted temporary protection or asylum, and to provide accommodation to those who are seeking asylum. The regional disparity in where that accommodation is provided is stark. The Minister gave a very impassioned speech yesterday about the difficulties she encountered in her constituency last summer. However, it is fair to point out - it would be unfair not to point it out - the massive disparity between the number of people housed in her constituency, in the context of the population of her constituency, and the number of people housed in constituencies like Clare and Kerry, or indeed along the whole western seaboard. All of these areas depend heavily on seasonal tourism, but they cannot get income from seasonal tourism now because the hotel beds are filled with people. I am not saying that these people do not need a place to stay - they clearly do - but it is interfering with the local economy in a way that is not happening in the Minister's constituency or any of the constituencies in Dublin or the east of the country. That is simply not fair. Something that is not fair is not sustainable for a very long period of time before we start to see resentment on the part of people who want to see equity and fairness in how the Government is spreading the burdens of the State and how it is spreading the services that should accompany that. The Government is not doing that at all. It is just saying "Out of sight, out of mind; go west." "To hell or to Connacht" is almost the attitude.

I very much commend this Bill. It is long overdue. I very much hope the Government will go further than not resisting it and actually make sure it is enacted. I was a backbencher for most of my time in the Dáil. Occasionally, I was not a Government backbencher as I lost the Whip. The Government will accept some Bills and have them wither on the vine. It will kill those Bills by making sure they do not get a committee hearing because it does not want the embarrassment of opposing them. I hope that is not the approach the Government will take to this legislation. I hope this Bill will get to Committee Stage quickly and will be adopted in the lifetime of this Dáil. It is a very worthwhile Bill and I congratulate the Regional Group and Deputy Shanahan on it. I thank the Acting Chair for his latitude.

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