Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail)

I agree with Senator Mooney on the issue of decentralisation. It is about time we had a debate on the issue because it seems that many Government Senators and Deputies think the Government has abandoned decentralisation. That is not the case. In fact, it has continued with many decentralised projects and has pledged to review many others. With regard to Carrick-on-Shannon, it is ludicrous that the Government is prepared to fly around the world to get a major multinational company to put jobs into that town but at the same time is unprepared to locate one of its Departments there, despite this approach having worked successfully in many other parts of the country. We need a full debate on this issue to get the full facts and to inform people that the Government has not abandoned decentralisation, rather that it has reviewed it. We should also discuss its benefits. Mention was made of cost-benefit analysis and we should examine the benefit to communities and with regard to jobs.

I want to mention the debate this week on community hospitals and public nursing homes. It seems there is a deliberate shift in policy from public to private. A comment made on my local radio this morning set me wondering why we are closing community nursing homes when massive private sector nursing homes are under construction currently. I was delighted to see a fairly substantial private sector nursing home under construction, but when I subsequently found out about the plans to close public nursing homes I started to think about the reasons for this. People who contact local radio stations have also started thinking about this. I am concerned that some of the most senior policymakers in the area of nursing homes have connections to the private nursing home industry, which seems to be booming currently, and there seems to be a deliberate transfer from a public service to a private service. That is what is happening and the Labour Party should be aware of this and must make investigations and inquiries.