Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Given the Deputy's great interest in Fine Gael representation, I am pleased to tell him that come the next election, I have every confidence that Senator John Cummins will get elected to the Dáil. The Deputy seems to be focused on the past. We are focused on the needs of today and are confident about the story we will be putting forward. We will be confident about the ability of someone like Senator Cummins to make our case in this regard, while other Government representatives will be doing the same.

When the Deputy stands up again, perhaps he will again be able to explain the analogy of "The Hunger Games" he used to me. He appeared to be painting some kind of vision of some kind of aggression and competition for life in the way he described it. I do not get it, so perhaps he might explain it to us a bit more. While he is busy painting these kinds of stories and trying to explain the story he has put to me, let me tell him the kind of case that Senator Cummins and I will be making, along with other public representatives from the Government parties, to the proud people of the south east and beyond.

In the Deputy's question to me, I did not hear any reference to the fact that the number of jobs in companies supported by the IDA has increased by 25%. There was no reference to this point. There are more jobs and these are better and improved ones that are making a difference to the people of the south east and beyond. In the points the Deputy was putting to me, I heard nothing about the progress being made in the North Quays development. This is a project that has been enabled by the Government and that has the ability to transform the city of Waterford and beyond it. I also did not hear in the question put to me by the Deputy an acknowledgement of the difference the national broadband plan is making to towns and villages outside our cities and the role it is playing in allowing jobs to be moved out of our large cities and to counties and towns where people can do their work nearer to home. This is benefiting everybody. In South East Technological University, SETU, it is and remains the case that the Government is fully committed to how that institution can be developed in the time ahead and how we can ensure the young women and men the Deputy is referring to have the education, higher education and university services and supports they need closer to home. This is the reality of how we are looking to make a difference to the communities the Deputy is referring to.

Turning to the point the Deputy made about our hospital services and where they stand in the south east, of course we are aware of how much more needs to be done and of the pressures our health services are facing. It still remains the case, however, that for the hospital and the people working in it, there are now more staff working there, with a bigger budget, due to the changes being made by the Government to expand the health budget and to bring more nurses and doctors into the hospitals that can make a difference to the health of the people of the south east and our country overall. This is the story of the difference we are making and the proposition we will be bringing to the people. This is the message I am sure Senator John Cummins will be communicating with great vigour and gusto in the time ahead. I say this given the Deputy's fixation on Fine Gael.

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