Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

I concur with Senator O'Toole's call for a debate on the McCann report for West on Track, which was published last week. It would be most appropriate if this House would note the contents of the report and debate its many merits. This issue and the lobby for this project are not political. It is a great achievement by all the affected communities on the western seaboard to take the project to its current level. The House should debate the issue before the scheduled announcement of the ten-year transport envelope, which will come up in this session. I would like this House's views to be taken into account by the Minister for Transport, Deputy Cullen, and the Government when the final decision is being made on the West on Track project.

I reiterate my call for a debate on national resources, particularly Bord Gáis. Will the Leader arrange for the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Noel Dempsey, to come to the House so we might discuss that body's plans, or lack thereof, to extend the network through the north-west above County Galway? As we know, work is proceeding to bring this natural resource from the Corrib field ashore in County Mayo but there are no plans, or even the germ of an idea, on the part of Bord Gáis to make the resource available to the people of the north west.