Geraldine Feeney (Fianna Fail)

I warmly welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe. I also welcome the Minister's speech and thank Senator Mansergh for sharing his time.

We have benefited significantly from EU Structural and Cohesion Funds. The prudent far-seeing financial management of the economy by the Government has resulted in Ireland becoming wealthier than any of us could have foreseen or imagined. Our national income is above the EU average, something of which we are all very proud. We must now, however, ensure that our wealth is spread throughout the country, and investment should positively discriminate in favour of the peripheral economic regions.

The BMW region falls below national averages in many respects, including income per head, population growth, and public transport investments. We must strive to narrow the differentials through further investment in infrastructure, particularly in the west and north west.

It was rather worrying to hear the Minister say that post-2006 Structural Funds transfers to the BMW region would be modest. As his speech progressed, however, it was encouraging to hear him emphasise that investment choices at national and regional level would take account of the national spatial strategy which in turn would benefit the BMW region. As one who has lived there for over 20 years, I am glad Sligo is a gateway. I hope that will be the result of the enhancement of the north west.

I am also delighted by the idea of decentralisation but we must be rigorous in pushing this forward. It is a great stimulus to peripheral regions — 200 permanent Civil Service jobs in a provincial town are better and last longer than the jobs provided by a factory.

Three of my four children are in third level education and had to move away from Sligo to attend university. One is in Dublin and two are in Galway. Although Galway is closer to Sligo than Dublin and is in the same province, it is easier to travel to Dublin using the rail, road or new air services. The Minister attributed this to subvention for passenger rail and air services. Surely it is wrong that students are being taken out of the west to go to the east. We should try to keep them in the west, particularly their own province where the education is the same as that in the east. The western seaboard infrastructure must be a priority.

EU investment in Ireland over the past 30 years has helped it turn from being a beneficiary to a contributory nation. We must do the same for the regions. I am delighted by the Minister's objective to increase levels of investment in the BMW region.

I hope that the Minister of State will convey my comments to the Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen. The Minister has brought together a group of consultants to review tax breaks on which he has an open mind. It is important that he retains that openness. It saddens and annoys me to hear the Opposition say that those tax breaks help the rich to get richer. That is far from the truth.