Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is what I have come to learn in the past three years.

I have no difficulty with sharing services in the most cost-effective way. I fully subscribe to that. It is a sine qua non, from the point of view of having cost effective administration of services. The Minister gave examples of that in Wexford and Kilkenny and neighbouring counties. We have worked in conjunction with County Wicklow on roads. We tried but failed to work with County Kilkenny on roads. As the Minister knows, when travelling from the south east corner to the midlands, one is travelling through 19th century roads in County Kilkenny. We would have talked about upgrading these roads but that has never been done. We campaigned for years for the New Ross-Waterford road, which is the gateway to the west and south-west.