Brendan Daly (Fianna Fail)

As for people who want to make this a political issue, it was a political issue before the last election and it will be a political issue in the next election and probably in the subsequent one. It was a political issue in the general elections in 1981 and 1982, when the then leader of Senator Feighan's party, former Taoiseach, Garrett FitzGerald, and his Minister for Finance, John Bruton, scrapped the entire idea. If they want to do that again, they will send out a wrong signal to people. Some people will say that one should wait seven or eight months for an election and that when Fine Gael gets into office it will scrap the programme, as it did previously. It could not do that now. This programme has gone far enough that Fine Gael will not be able to stop it for a second time, but it is important we encourage the Minister of State to press ahead with the work. He has the energy to do so and to do it successfully.

If there is to be a dialogue with unions and others about the differences that might exist over whether, for example, Enterprise Ireland comes to Shannon or goes elsewhere, it is a minor issue which in time will resolve itself. It is unrealistic to accept the sight of young people on Sunday evening lining up in the square in Kilrush waiting for coaches to take them back to Dublin. I never accepted it from the first time I was elected in 1973. Some of them would be in tears coming back to Dublin. At every clinic, mothers, fathers and their children would ask that they get back to the region from the then Departments such as Agriculture and Posts and Telegraphs, why it was not possible for Government to locate to any provincial town in Ireland and to expedite this process and get it moving successfully.

While there may be teething problems, industrial relations problems and other problems, as the Minister of State said only this week, let people sit around the table and resolve those problems so this scheme can work successfully. I hope to see the day when another 10,000 people can be moved to provincial locations where Government business can be done as effectively and efficiently as in Kildare Street, next door in Agriculture House or anywhere else. I wish the Minister of State success in his endeavours and compliment him on the work he has done in expediting this issue to date.