Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Cathaoirleach will allow me an extra minute. I welcome the Taoiseach's intentions.I take them as bona fide. The previous Taoiseach, even though he was from my county, went through the process of asking each party to nominate a person onto the committee, and I was nominated by Sinn Féin, but nothing happened after that. I welcome that the Taoiseach has put a time limit on this. I look forward to working with him. Obviously the implementation of the Manning report is not the full reform we need but at least it will go some way to achieving what we need to achieve.

The Taoiseach spoke about reform within politics itself but what is frustrating for me and for other Members is the lengthy process it takes to get legislation through the House. I see where there are blocks put against Bills, particularly those from the Opposition. I will name just two of the Bills I really would like to see going through much quicker. The first is the Bill to facilitate class actions introduced by my colleague, Deputy Pearse Doherty. The Taoiseach will have seen for himself the tracker mortgage situation is likely to go to €1 billion as it stands. It is imperative that we get this legislation through quickly to save the impact it is having on people's lives. The other Bill the Taoiseach should get through as quickly as possible is the Domestic Violence Bill. We were hoping to get it through before Christmas. I acknowledge there were Government amendments but this is real legislation that would make a real difference to people's lives.

I was a bit dismayed by what the Taoiseach said about transparency of lobbying and so on. While I welcome it, it is shameful that in 2018, we are congratulating ourselves on the transparency we should have had many years ago. It has cost the country dearly in terms of the corruption and cronyism that has happened over the years.

Does the Taoiseach agree the main focus of his office over recent months has mainly benefitted Dublin and the major cities? How concerned is he about the recent report by the ESRI on the regional imbalance spelling trouble ahead not just for rural Ireland but for Dublin and other major cities? Does he now accept that the current model is flawed and that if it is allowed to continue, it will lead to further chaos in the cities and the continued dissipation of rural Ireland?

The Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, is due to publish the national planning framework in the coming weeks. Did the Taoiseach have sight of the draft of this important document before it went out to consultation? He spoke earlier about scrutiny but surely, even though it was at a draft stage, it should have been scrutinised before it was put to the people. The Taoiseach must understand that notwithstanding the fact it was a draft, it shows contempt and disregard for people living west and north-west of the Shannon. Did the Taoiseach's infamous and costly communications unit think this was good enough for us living in the region? When he became Taoiseach, he promised us he would be a Taoiseach for people living in areas from Dungarvan to Doohoma but this plan says something really different. I hope that in the coming weeks before it is finalised, he will take on board the submissions that have been made by all parties and that it will be radically changed to address the serious problems in rural Ireland. Infrastructural funding must meet the needs of today's demands but it also needs to disrupt the trends and create and anticipate future demand. The Taoiseach knows there must be a decoupling of the strict relationship between infrastructural investment and current demand. He spoke about a democratic revolution and we certainly need a rural revolution and we need it now. Until the Taoiseach sees rural Ireland as being the solution to national problems rather than a problem in itself, he will never create an environment whereby rural Ireland can fulfil its true potential.