Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach did not actually correct the record in respect of what I highlighted to him. I am glad that he seeks support for University Hospital Waterford, as do I. Since the two cath labs opened - they are operating 60 hours a week - the hospital is emulating the same service activity as the Cork centre, which has five cath labs and 168 hours scheduled. This is despite the fact the Herity report in 2015 indicated that there was no requirement for a second cath lab and that the emergency services should be taken out of Waterford.

I can extend that to our technological university. We have had no capital investment there whatsoever, beyond a land purchase and, as I pointed out to the Taoiseach, no funding to build a building. The engineering building is nowhere to be seen. I could see on television during the week three senior Ministers walking around DCU, smiling while they awarded €61 million in accommodation grants, with nothing done for the south-eastern regional university. There has been no extension of the borrowing framework, no looking at lecturers' contracts as promised, and nothing done by way of accepting the €350 million project plan that has been put forward by the president of the university.

In recent weeks, the Taoiseach produced his capital calculator to show how much money Fine Gael is putting back into people's pockets. I suggest he might look at a calculator to see how much it has taken out of the south-eastern region and how it has left us behind, because we are suffering inequity. I have worked very hard with the Taoiseach and the Government to try to address that but it is not happening at this point.

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