Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael)

I second Senator Healy Eames's motion. If we are to have cancer treatment centres of excellence, it is essential they are given adequate resources. If they do not get such resources, it is a serious matter which we must debate.

I wish the new Cabinet well. I also wish my colleague in the south east, the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Connick, well. He was my colleague on the South-East Regional Authority and he will be an excellent Minister of State. It is only a pity he has not been appointed a Minister. Many people expected change for the better in the reshuffle. The new Ministers have a massive responsibility, as does the entire Cabinet, because they have the executive power to lead this country out of the current mess. Everybody will watch very closely how it does that. However, there is much confusion about the areas of responsibility. Employment and unemployment are the biggest issues facing this country but there does not appear to be clear or direct responsibility for those in any of the new Cabinet posts. The best example of this, as other Members have said, is responsibility for FÁS, the national agency for re-skilling, retraining and re-employment. There must be clarity about that so I support calls for a debate on the issue. The Leader should invite the relevant Minister to the House - none of us knows who it is - to debate it.

I am very disappointed that there is no senior Minister from the south east. We often hear about balanced regional development and the national spatial strategy. Waterford is a gateway city under that strategy. The former Minister, former Deputy Martin Cullen, is only gone five minutes and there are already proposals from the Government to downgrade emergency services off the south-east coast and to downgrade the Rosslare to Waterford and the Waterford to Limerick railway lines. These are serious infrastructure issues for the south east but because it now does not have a senior Minister, I fear for its future. I seek a debate on proper and balanced regional development and the role Ministers will play in that.