The recent census statistics clearly indicate that we are living in a town and region in decline. Ballinasloe is a town which has passed through the Celtic tiger years without any measurable growth. I call on the Minister for State to ask his colleague at the Department of Finance to extend the pilot scheme operating very successfully in the upper Shannon region to the middle region to incorporate Ballinasloe and Portumna and the catchment area in between. The incentives which have proved so successful in the south Leitrim area and regenerated a rural area in decline could kick-start a new era in Ballinasloe. They would give the injection of inward investment that the town has been lacking from any State agency or Government in recent years.