Margaret Cox (Fianna Fail)

That is better or worse, as the case may be — we just could not figure that out. When we start to discuss figures in billions, this is perhaps one of the things that goes wrong.

I will outline information given to me by the Department of Finance and I apologise if it is wrong. The expenditure forecast for the BMW region in the period 2000 to December 2006 was €15.2 billion. It was supposed to be €18.2 billion and there is therefore an underspend of €3 billion. The per capita GDP data for 2004 indicate there is no balanced regional development. The GDP for Dublin per capita was 33% higher than the Irish average and in the Border, midlands and west region, it was 25% below average. The disposable income per person in 2004 in the BMW region was 6.8% below average. There was €17.142 billion in disposable income in the BMW region compared to €50.921 billion in the south and east.

The National Development Plan 2000 to 2006 recognises an imbalance between the regions in terms of national economic progress. The new national development plan states there is no longer to be a BMW region or regional spending, and that spending will depend on potential, as measured by the ESRI. What is the potential of Galway over Dublin, or of Clifden over parts of the east? How will we define spending in the west, which is underdeveloped and has not been given all the money it was supposed to receive? It was allocated but not spent? What kind of strategy will measure potential? According to the Border, Midland and Western Regional Assembly, the changes proposed to the spending regime in the national development plan for the period 2007 to 2013 comprise a retrograde step. I agree with it.

The Minister is aware there is a water crisis in Galway. Many are saying it is not a matter for national Government but for local authorities. Are we living in a country in which national emergencies affecting 90,000 people are not addressed? Kofi Annan has stated clean, safe water is a basic human right, as confirmed in UN documentation. Ninety thousand households in Galway do not have this basic human right and it is not acceptable for Ministers and others to say it is not an issue for central Government but for local authorities, which have responsibility to clean up the mess. If it took €60 million to clean up the mess in Galway, only €500 per person would be required. I do not know if €60 million would suffice and am only using the figure for illustrative purposes but we should consider my point nevertheless.

Is the Minister aware that there is no capital expenditure proposed for the paediatric unit in University College Hospital, Galway, until 2011? The hospital cannot accommodate one child per room and does not have en suite toilet facilities for children or parents. There are four-bed rooms in the children's section of the hospital, in which little girls and boys may or may not be accompanied by a parent and have parental protection. If one child in the hospital is accompanied by a parent while another is unaccompanied, what kind of safety is provided? Children and parents are sharing toilets that were installed in the early 1950s or 1960s. This does not suggest the existence of a centre of excellence or a super-regional hospital. The Minister, when he entered Government in 1997, promised there would be cardiac surgery in the west. We have a facility with six beds and two cardiothorastic surgeons——