Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

The point I made is one that I stick to. Going around the west I see two types of community. One is always waiting for the solution to come from the outside and the other is getting on with the job and selling its area in a positive way. The communities which succeed are those which recognise the infrastructural deficits that exist — I know all about them — but which also know their strengths and advantages and play to their strengths while addressing the infrastructural deficits that always take longer to solve. The community, on the other hand, which says it cannot do anything until we sort out all the problems of the world are literally dying.

It is interesting to compare different attitudes to development in different parts of my constituency. I could compare the attitude of communities in Mayo and question why some areas succeed and some do not. I can think of an extremely rural parish in mid Mayo whose members have used their own resources, supported by the State grants, to progress a series of community developments. They did so because they had the get up and go to do it. That is the key point I am making. It is ridiculous to think one will attract people to invest in an area that one continually runs down. We hear talk about the IDA not setting up factories in the region but some people run down the region.

I accept there are major challenges in the region and I will deal with a number of them. I heard what Members said about the national broadband scheme. My preference would be to have broadband down the line, which is an attractive option. If we were to bid for such provision, the incumbent would have the advantage. There is a plus and minus to putting the national broadband scheme out to tender on that basis. Through the delivery of the scheme, I hope we will prove something I have believed from the beginning, namely, that the percentage take-up of broadband and the band width that would be used would far surpass what the experts predicted. Given the high level of education in rural Ireland and the distances involved, broadband connectivity is the much more attractive option. If we could put in place basic broadband provision, demand — as we found with mobile phone systems — would far exceed the provision and it would naturally grow from the base level. Therefore, the problem we faced was to ensure the first service was delivered, and we are doing that. I will give the times for such delivery. Half of the scheme will be delivered by the end of this year and the remainder will be delivered by September 2010. I accept there are small gaps in the way the scheme has been rolled out. There are areas that were mapped to have a service with which we will have to deal. However, we must be honest and acknowledge that in terms of access to broadband, the position will be much better in September 2010 and much better even by December this year.

I wish to clarify that the target for the development of the western rail corridor to Tuam is 2011 and to Claremorris is 2014. We purposely allocated such time for such development. There are major forces in the establishment in Dublin — I am not referring to politicians — who believe this development is a waste of time, that very few passengers will travel on that route and that the trains that travel throughout the countryside on that route will be empty. I have seen the documentation produced for this development. When all the information is gathered and a cost benefit analysis is carried out, we tend to be on a loser with such projects. However, this is the way the system works. We are told to carry out such studies before proceeding with projects. In politics or in business, one needs a combination of a good gut instinct and a good study of a proposal. Having a study of a proposal without having the courage to implement it will not get one anywhere.

I agree with what Senator O'Toole said about the development of marine leisure activities. We do need to develop this area. That is the area to which I was referring and we also need to develop surfing and other such activities. I am committed to moving forward this agenda. Regardless of what area one wants to develop in this or any other country, responsibility for it is divided across various agencies. The best approach is to ensure the agencies involved work together and not on every such occasion to try to re-organise all the agencies of the State. That would take too long and often such an approach does not solve the problem. My approach to dealing with agencies is to work in line with the status quo as far as possible and to make the best of it.

The west is not badly served in terms of third level institutes. It has two universities, one in Limerick and one in Galway. When we talk about the west, it tends to be a floating agenda. Senator Doherty picked me up on what I said about rural depopulation, but he said, níl sé ag tabhairt fé bhuanú na tuaithe, laistigh den iarthar bhí gluaiseacht suntasach daoine, idir pobal tuaithe agus ionaid oibreacha, de réir mar a aistarraingíodh seirbhísí éigeantacha. That is stated in his summary. Are we talking about the west——