Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

Last week, I asked for a debate on the BMW region. We see this morning that as a result of the visit of a delegation to Brussels yesterday, the Government has repeatedly failed to draw down fundings that are available for various projects. A total of €50 million was returned because no suitable tourism and sports projects were put forward by the Government or the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Deputy O'Donoghue, and €24 million was returned because universities failed to utilise available funding in the area of research and development, although they claim they are underfunded.

The Government and respective Ministers have neglected the area of infrastructure. The area of agriculture is already in total disarray and suffering from a continuing flight from the land, yet the Minister for Agriculture and Food has returned the funding with the result that expected funding of €4.5 billion for the next seven years has been reduced to €1 billion. This means that many projects, particularly in the BMW region, will not be forwarded and processed, which is a shame. The sooner the relevant Minister comes to the House to account for the miserable failure on his or her part to provide adequate funding in those areas, the better.