James Bannon (Fine Gael)

The Minister of State referred to the input by my local authority. I requested a figure of €800,000 and that is the amount that was contributed by my local authority to our roads programme. As the Minister of State is aware, Longford is a poor and impoverished county and recent figures from the Central Statistics Office confirm this. Having regard to the disposable income per head of population, a person living in County Longford would have a disposal income of €4,000 less than the national average. Such income comes from a low rate base – in the region of 7% in the county, which is due to the number of industries that have been closed down. We have an impoverished county due to neglect on the part of the Government and its immediate predecessor to bring services and industry into the county.

I am delighted the Minister of State referred to accommodating and facilitating disabled drivers. Those who are outside the tax relief system must be included and it is important that they will be.