Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I would welcome a debate on regional development. All of these issues — the gradual closing by Teagasc of the smaller stations, the closing of rural post offices and the decline in so many areas — relate to regional infrastructural development. We have a problem in this country in that the major funding body, or determining body, will always say that certain things cannot be justified because the demand does not exist. They say that infrastructure should follow the market, but once the market has decided to do something, they say they cannot do it. One example is the Dublin metro project, which has become too expensive. We must accept the need to invest in infrastructure in order to guide the market rather than to follow it. That extends from Teagasc maintaining smaller support services in more rural areas, to the western rail corridor, and to other aspects. We need to debate seriously our attitude to infrastructure, which leads the market rather than follows it. Perhaps there is a fundamental difference between us.

Given some of the remarks I have made here, I suppose I should be grateful that nobody has threatened me with ending up in the Liffey.