Michael Finucane (Fine Gael)

I am sharing my time with Senator Ulick Burke. As a native of Newcastle West and someone who has championed the cause of decentralisation long before the then Minister for Finance, Deputy McCreevy, made his announcement in December 2003, I welcome the 50 jobs that are going that town. Originally the model encompassed Newcastle West only, and then Shannon Development said we would possibly be successful with a concentration of 150 jobs, if we looked for 50 jobs each for Kilrush, Listowel and Newcastle West. It is important to understand why the take-up has been so significant in Newcastle West, where 109 people have indicated they would like to go. It is significant that only seven people volunteered from the Dublin location. Many of the people who will decentralise to Newcastle West will come from Limerick city and they are people living in the region already. In many cases, people have been coming to me since the announcement, wondering when it is going to happen.

One must go back to the original spirit and concept of decentralisation, as advocated by the Minister for Finance of the time, Deputy McCreevy. He spoke about the chaos within Dublin and the possibility of decentralising all these jobs around the country. I believe he was talking in the context of decentralisation out of Dublin. On that occasion, 10,000 jobs were being relocated. It is significant that this was followed with a degree of ecstasy within the Seanad Chamber. When the announcement came there was a debate in this House on 4 December 2003, and it is significant when one reflects on what happened at the time. Senator Leyden went down memory lane and gave the House a history lesson. He went back 21 years to the time of Deputy Dukes as Minister for Finance and further still to the time of Deputy Garret FitzGerald. I would remind him how wrong he was in asserting that no Government in the history of the State had decentralised 10,500 jobs to the regions and that the strategy would be implemented within three years. I would remind Senator Leyden that not one job will be decentralised by December 2005, as regards what we have been presented with by the Minister of State. That is the reality because it is spelt out in the Minister for Finance's recent publication.