Geraldine Feeney (Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator Wilson for sharing time.

Decentralisation is an important business. One might wonder why I call it a business when nobody else has mentioned the word. However, it is a business. It is an important business for several reasons, not least because it affects the lives, careers and futures of people and their families.

Decentralisation is about balance and addressing regional imbalance and urban regeneration. It is about looking at east versus west and north versus south. I am glad that a Fianna Fáil-led Government has given a commitment to look at these areas. I remind Senator Browne that Fianna Fáil-led Governments have always accommodated decentralisation. His party never accommodated it in any way.

One cannot look at this from just a parochial point of view. If one's town is not chosen for decentralisation, one cannot get into a huff about it. I will congratulate the towns that benefit from decentralisation because the neighbouring towns will benefit from the spill-over. I can say this from experience. Although I am from Offaly, I live in Sligo and towns such as Ballymoate and Tubbercurry, to the south, Dromore West and Easkey, to the west, and Grange and Cliffoney, to the north, have benefited as a result of decentralisation to Sligo.

Senator Higgins talked about Ministers bringing things to their home town. Does it matter who brings them, provided they are brought? The Opposition is forever telling us that people have short memories, but I do not know how short memories come into it, if one has a problem with Ministers bringing things to their home town. My home town of Tullamore has done exceptionally well, but it has a vibrant, active and hard-working Minister. There is also a hard-working Minister of State in the south of the county.

I ask the Minister of State not to forget Birr. We are still waiting to see something nice brought to the town and I am sure the people living there will reward the Minister of State in whatever way they can – if there are a few votes going begging after the Minister for Foreign Affairs gets them, they will throw them his way.