Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is the reason Sinn Féin opposed the Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2021 earlier this week. We made it very clear that we support the public health measures. There is a yawning gap in the context of oversight, however. We are all held responsible when the relevant statutory instruments come into being, and yet we have no effective say in respect of them. Senator McDowell's suggestion of re-establishing the relevant committee has real merit. It would not be a threat to anyone and it would give these Houses a better opportunity to hold the Government to account. Obviously, it would also give the Government a better chance to explain its position as well. We should revisit this issue as a matter of urgency in the new year because, unfortunately, it looks as if we are going to potentially be in a further phase of Covid-19. Who knows for how long that phase will last? Hopefully it will not be too long, but the first few months of next year look like they will certainly be dominated by it. In light of the latter, I support Senator McDowell's suggestion.

The Bill gives me the opportunity to talk about financial accountability in the context of some specific concerns I have. One such concern that springs to mind immediately is the money spent on the regeneration project in Limerick. This was originally supposed to be a €3 billion project but the funding for it was cut back to approximately €360 million in 2008 after Fianna Fáil drove the economy off a cliff. Here is the thing. I believe the actual spend is going to be in the region of €400 million. What happened in that interim? Some 1,300 houses were demolished and 270 new houses were built. In terms of the housing crisis in Limerick and the beleaguered communities of Moyross, St. Mary's Park, Ballinacurra and South Hill, what was promised at the time was not delivered. In fairness, all political parties have now declared regeneration to be a failure.That is a damning indictment of successive Governments. It is a damning indictment of the pledges that were made at the time to finally address the horrific levels of inequality and deprivation that had just been forgotten about. When one speaks to locals, they say they cannot see €400 million in the area. Politicians are genuinely scratching their heads and asking where the money has gone and how it has been spent. There is a complete lack of accountability. It leads to huge frustration locally.

Another local issue is University Hospital Limerick. We all know about the increase in spending. We also know that in Limerick we are seeing the situation getting worse, rather than better, each year. It is getting significantly worse, unfortunately, in the areas of trolley counts and so on and so forth. In the context of the financial spend, one has to wonder why we do not have an MRI scanner in our primary care centres. These are new primary care centres that have no additional staff and no additional capital equipment. As a simple example, if we had an MRI scanner in a primary care centre, we could divert significant numbers away from the accident and emergency department, which is consistently the worst and most overcrowded in the country. Again, we need to revisit accountability and prioritising how money is spent.

The final example is one I have mentioned to the Minister of State before. I have offered it to him as a quick win, particularly for the Green Party. The existing railway line between Limerick and Ballybrophy has 8.5 miles of track to be completed in order that upgraded speeds can be facilitated and we can start to introduce additional services and make it a proper commuter line. At the moment, there are only two services in one direction and three services in the other. The speed is so slow that, frankly, most people just do not use it. It is 30 miles per hour. That is an easy win. The difficulty is that at the minute the multi-annual planning suggests that it will take another four years or so to complete that track. Why not roll up those finances and get it done next year? The Government could shut it down for a few weeks, get it done, get it completed and give the people on my side of Limerick city, as well as those in County Tipperary, a real prospect of a decent, local heavy-rail commuter line that we could use. I have suggested this to the Minister of State before. I commend it to him again today and ask him to take it back to his Department. I will leave it at that today. Obviously we will support the Bill.