Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

I congratulate Senator Doherty on producing this report and acknowledge the tremendous amount of hard work he put into it. I welcome the opportunity to say a few words on rural decline and the west in particular. I welcome the Minister, Deputy Ó Cuív, to the House and congratulate him on doing a very fine job as Minister in his Department. I know he is fully committed in everything he does but in regard to the west, he is not getting any help from his colleagues.

In his speech the Minister stated:

In terms of developing the west, I trust we can all agree on the fundamental point that the western region is intrinsically a good place to live. In any initiative to develop the west we never fall short of that measurement of quality of life.

One would wonder what that means. Does it mean the quality of life is so good in the west of Ireland that we should leave the people as they are? That would seem to be the way County Mayo has been treated, especially over the past ten years.

The Minister has met deputations from various businesses in County Mayo, including Allergan Pharmaceuticals, Baxter, Hollister and Coca Cola with regard to rail and road transport links into County Mayo. These businesses are all big employers, with more than 1,000 employees in most of them. They have very fine plants and have been very fine employers for many years in our county. They will leave our county, leading to worse than what has happened in Limerick, because of the state of the freight rail and road links in County Mayo.

These companies have been complaining about this matter for the past number of years and this is coupled with one of the highest electricity charges in Europe as well as water and sewerage costs. In County Mayo our water and sewerage costs are among the highest in the country because local authorities have very few ways of raising funds. They use water and sewerage charges as the new rates to raise funds and keep services going within the local authority area. These businesses are under pressure from infrastructure needs and rising costs. The Minister and the Government must consider the matter carefully and give it the attention it deserves.

The Minister mentioned decentralisation, indicating that he was delighted it did not go to the gateways. Taking the rural guidelines as outlined by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, there are hub towns such as Castlebar, Ballina, Tuam and others. The rural planning guidelines laid down by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government indicate the hub towns must grow at the cost of the other towns.