Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We will not oppose the Order of Business.

I thank the Leader for his words and pay tribute to our colleague. We have all heard the sad news this morning of the passing of our colleague, the former Senator John Carty, who was a former member of the other House as well. On behalf of the Fianna Fáil group and all of us in the House we offer our sympathy to Kathleen, his wife, and all his family. During his time in public life, John Carty dedicated his life to public service, as an agricultural officer with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine for many years and later as a public representative in Mayo County Council and in the Seanad and the Dáil. He was one of life's true gentlemen, a champion of the small farmer and of the causes of the west, and somebody who can only be described as all graces and no airs. I am sure we will have an opportunity to pay a more detailed tribute in the weeks and months ahead. I extend the sympathy of all of us to Kathleen and the family.

Following on from comments yesterday on pylons, we welcome the Government row-back on the inclusion of all parts of the country in the review. However, we regret the absence of a health professional on the review group, which makes a mockery of it. Even if there was one such professional on it, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Pat Rabbitte, has made an entire mockery of it because yesterday he said the Government would not be bound by the recommendations of the group. Clearly, this is an aesthetic stroke to facilitate better polling in the elections where the pylons were being proposed. The Minister has clearly announced that the Government will not be bound by any findings of the particular review group but if it suits it may take aspects of it on board. One wonders if we are going through this fruitless exercise just to politically appease certain people.

While trying to further the Irish cause in the US yesterday, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, told Bloomberg that Dublin is thriving while the rest of the country is still coming to terms with the financial crisis. That is true. We have a housing crisis in Dublin. The house price differential between Dublin and the rest of the country is 28%, while this time last year the differential was 17%. All Governments must begin to take a strategic view of regional Ireland. That includes the west and north-west, where some lay-offs have been announced at Abbot Ireland's diagnostics and nutrition facilities in Cavan, Donegal, Sligo and Longford. The work of the IDA must be given a greater focus in regional Ireland because employment is a rising tide that will lift all boats, and we can begin to bridge the serious gap of 28% in house prices, which is indicative of the wider costs scenario. As an auctioneer, I declare an interest here. Throughout the country, one can buy a house for up to 80% less, in some cases, than it cost to build it. This is as a result of the negligence of consecutive governments in the context of treating regional Ireland in a strategic manner and trying to harness the natural contribution these regions can make to the national effort. This has been consistently ignored. There is a need for a cross-departmental team led by the Taoiseach to focus on increased investment into regions such as the north west to ensure they can make a more sustained and greater contribution to the national effort.