Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to also extend my sympathies to the wife and family of former Senator, Mr. Mark Killilea.

I certainly want to condemn the car bomb in Derry and the other actions and I welcome the fact that it has been condemned by all leadership in the North and every right-minded citizen. There is no support or tolerance for that behaviour. We have a pathway to peace. We have peace and a pathway to Irish unity - in fact, we have never been closer to Irish unity. The conversations and discussions now being had in civic society about the possibility of Irish unity mean we can further garner support for Irish unity across the board. There is no support, tolerance or justification for these actions and I would ask those responsible to just stop that behaviour.

My colleague, Deputy Maurice Quinlivan, received information from Údarás na Gaeltachta that shows that 89 units it owns are currently vacant. Eight of these units are located in Údarás na Gaeltachta sites across County Mayo. One such unit is in Béal an Mhuirthead and has been lying empty for 20 years. It is hard to believe that no use has been found for this site since 1999. Instead of lying empty, these and similar units should be used to help start-up businesses, community groups or charities. Even letting these premises for free is better than seeing such a valuable public asset lying idle for such a long period of time.I call on the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation to come to this House and tell us how she will facilitate greater co-operation between IDA Ireland, Údarás na Gaeltachta and Enterprise Ireland to ensure that these vacant sites are taken into account and fully utilised for the benefit of communities. To achieve this, many more site visits to Mayo and the west by IDA Ireland, especially in Gaeltacht areas, are needed. Last year, up to November 2018, there were only seven such IDA visits to Mayo. If the Government is serious about creating jobs in County Mayo and other places in the west, all available infrastructure needs to be utilised. This will not happen if they do not bother coming to see and assess it for themselves. These units and land in public ownership need to be used as a factor of production and to address many of the problems we have across the State relating to housing and unemployment. We cannot say that we support indigenous business and enterprise, and that we have situations where there is full employment. There are pockets of very high unemployment in rural Ireland, many of which are in the Gaeltacht. We cannot have assets there which are not fully utilised.