John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

However, we were fully aware last year that what was promised on budget day could not be delivered and it has not been delivered.

I was today provided with a list of the towns that have been cast adrift and will not be included with the early movers. The Minister read into the record many waffly terms that mean nothing to anybody and certainly not to the people of New Ross, County Wexford, my local town, although I live six miles from there in County Kilkenny. In many respects, New Ross is a town that has not experienced the benefits of the Celtic tiger in the past ten years yet the 130 jobs promised for that town will not be delivered, no more than the jobs promised for Kilkenny city, Waterford city, Dungarvan and elsewhere will be delivered.

The major argument Fine Gael has with the latest announcement on decentralisation is that it is clearly driven by Ministers. I applaud the Minister of State, Deputy Parlon. He got into hot water last year in regard to his posters and leaflets, which were obviously printed before the budget was announced to state that decentralised jobs——