Michael Kitt (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to speak and I thank Senator Dooley for sharing his time. In 1980 the Fianna Fáil Government made plans to bring in the decentralisation programme and it was very successful. I was on the Committee of Public Accounts at the time when the Opposition told us we could not move the then Department of Social Welfare out of Dublin because it was so big, as were the computers. The technology has moved on and many parts of the Department of Social and Family Affairs are now devolved and decentralised throughout the country. We had a similarly good programme in 1989.

When the spatial strategy was launched by the then Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Cullen, there was some disappointment. Tuam, for example, is a hub town and a number of gateway towns have done quite well out of decentralisation. Tuam did not feature in the spatial strategy. At the time I also made a strong case for Ballinasloe because it had lost two major industries, Square D and AT Cross, while Dubarry has laid off some people. Thankfully, Ballinasloe is included in the decentralisation programme, with the National Roads Authority due to come there. It is disappointing for me that Ballinasloe is not mentioned in Table 1, 2 or 3. I am told that is because the NRA employs specialised, highly-skilled people. The NRA is very busy with its roads programme, and all credit to it, but it is time for the agency to announce through a sub-committee or small group what it intends to do with regard to Ballinasloe. That is important.

I welcome the fact that Loughrea is mentioned in Table 1, with 40 staff due to come from the Department of Transport, and in Table 3, with 12 people coming from the National Safety Council. The Minister and the Government must look again at Ballinasloe. That town like many others wants a major industry to locate there but the only way the Government can directly help the town is through the decentralisation programme. I hope Ballinasloe will be listed in future announcements.

I understand that the closing date for applications regarding the spatial strategy was September 2001 — Senator O'Rourke may confirm that. A great deal of good work was done on the spatial strategy by the previous Government but I now see the new Deputies from east Galway, in particular the Independent Deputies, claiming credit for Tuam having hub status. A lot of the work was done by the last Government——