Frank Feighan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My apologies. I was not here when the Cathaoirleach made his ruling. I was not aware of it.

I will move on to decentralisation. Senator Leyden is absolutely right that we need a new emphasis on decentralisation. We cannot just have decentralisation throughout the country while senior civil servants have to live in Dublin. Now is the time to have the political capital in Dublin and the administrative capital in one of the regions. There is no better region than Sligo and the north west. I genuinely believe this because the motorways go to Galway and Belfast but nothing goes to the north west. It takes me three hours to go by train from Sligo to Dublin. It takes two hours to go from Cork to Dublin. We speak about Brexit and various issues, and the north west needs this. We need different thinking if we are to have a political capital in Dublin but an administrative capital elsewhere. It happens in other countries. A man called John Mulligan has come up with an idea that should be pushed much further. If we want regeneration and decentralisation and to save the west and the north west this would be a huge initiative.