Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That costs each citizen in this State approximately €44,000. That is all money which could be used for capital investment and could have been used over the years. Servicing that debt costs between €6 billion and €7 billion every year. We are talking about €60 billion to €70 billion over these ten years which could be available to put vital infrastructure into areas where it is needed. If one looks at savings and money that we give away, we only have to look as far as section 110 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997, the vulture funds and the tax loopholes available. There is no point in getting hysterical about it. It is absolutely a fact that we are letting billions of euro leave this country and that we are encouraging the likes of vulture funds to come in and to take these tax breaks. These come at the expense of people living in rural Ireland. That is the problem we have with much of this. We need to be heard and the Minister of State needs to listen to us.

I will comment on the way the plan was launched in the first place. The likes of us in rural Ireland thought it was absolutely ridiculous. All it was short of was dancing girls and some bells and whistles. It gave off the wrong image and overcooked the goose. It involved the strategic communications unit. I agree with the Taoiseach who is coming around to the idea of abolishing it. The use of public money in this regard has to be looked at by the Committee of Public Accounts. That is the only way forward. I worked in media buying and in advertising. I know the difference between an advertorial and an editorial, as do most people. This was put across as editorial. There is no way around it. The Minister of State has to face up to that.

There is also no point in passing the buck. When I was instructing media buying agencies and advertising agencies the buck stopped with me. So in this case it stops with the Minister. We need to get to the bottom of that and we need to see how taxpayers' money is being spent. The way in which the regional newspapers were used in this regard was also quite despicable. We all know that newspapers are quite vulnerable as it is. The promise that there is more to come does not fill us in rural Ireland with confidence when we see money being wasted like that.

Another aspect of it is that so much of the plan had been announced already. I now see that there are announcements of announcements. I nearly burst out laughing when I read in the newspaper during the week that we are expecting an announcement. We now are told when announcements are expected as well as being given the announcements themselves. To look at an example of what is cited in the plan we waited for 40 years for the Belmullet sewerage scheme. It is now nearly completed because of the work of the EPA and because of European directives saying that it was breaking down and so on. We certainly welcome the project but it was first to receive €13 million in funding which was then cut down to €6 million. It was vastly descaled. It has been put into the national development plan when it is already done. So much more of the plan is regurgitated announcements.

It is awfully important that this plan is put on a statutory basis. Will the Minister of State clarify the legal aspects and whether there will be a vote in the Dáil and the Seanad in order to put this plan on a statutory footing? I am delighted to see that the Minister, Deputy Michael Ring, was made a billionaire overnight. There will be huge expectations in rural Ireland, and in counties such as my own county of Mayo, that he will deliver. We have no doubt that the R312 connecting Erris to Castlebar, which we have waited almost 40 years for, will be delivered.