Pádraig Ó Céidigh (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Tá brón orm - 1967. I was there as well but I was not driving a car at that stage. As the Minister of State knows very well, there is a committee of local people who have been lobbying to improve and tarmacadam the road between Galway and Clifden to make it safer. That committee has been on the go for four of five years. All the people want is a proper road for their community. The amendment proposed by Senator Paddy Burke and others tries to create a balance and give greater opportunity and clarity for the Minister and his team in the Department to take decisive action. This is important. I trust the Minister of State and the Department to do this. This is what we do when we support or challenge the Government. It is not an individual thing, it is collective.

Approximately two weeks ago, there was a programme on TG4 about Rosmuc. I do not know whether Senator Warfield saw it. The captain of the girls' football team teaches in Dublin and drives all the way to Rosmuc to train with the team of seven or eight girls. I played on that football pitch. It was a bog. If it had not been turned into a football pitch, we would not have the soul of that community.

A point was made about hotels in Dublin. There are many more vacant houses in the middle of Mayo, Roscommon and Connemara than there are hotels. Nobody will build a hotel where it is not financially viable to do so. Certainly the hotels in the middle of Connemara, Mayo, Roscommon and the midlands are struggling to survive. The current tiger, whatever we call it, is fine for Dublin and those of us living here but it has not reached the parts of Ireland it needs to. The amendment is important to put the local community back in the centre. It is like the advertisement at Christmas about a dog being not just for Christmas. Connemara is not just for holidays. I ask everybody, and the Minister of State in particular, to support the amendment.