Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Rather than thinking too locally or too prudently, for the first time, this and the next Government need to think strategically. We have talked for 50 years about balanced regional development and Deputy Harkin and others have raised the infrastructure deficit on the western seaboard. Never did we have a situation where we had money we did not want and, it seems, did not need, yet there is so much that we could do with it strategically. I appeal to the Government to devote it, in a positive discriminatory fashion, towards that infrastructure deficit, which will not only benefit the Atlantic seaboard by improving the potential of the west, north west and Border regions, but will also act to give the eastern conurbation the much-needed breathing space it needs to catch its breath to be able to continue as the economic driver we need it to be. I appeal that it be used in that way, not as an individual shopping list for any constituency or region in particular, but to address what has consumed the State since its foundation, which is regional imbalance. We did not want the money, we did not need it and we spent money trying to give it back. It is now ours. Do the strategic thing, not the prudent, local or politically expeditious thing.

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