Pauline Tully (Sinn Fein)

We are talking about balanced regional development, but it is anything but balanced. I come from Cavan, a Border county that is a part of the northern and western region of Ireland, which is ranked No. 218 out of 234 EU regions in terms of transport infrastructure. Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal have no rail service. They did 65 years ago but all was stopped by a Government that had absolutely no foresight in favour of a lobby by car manufacturers to get people into cars. Even the road infrastructure is very poor. The M3, which comes from Dublin towards Cavan, stops at the Meath border and does not go into Cavan, causing a bottleneck at Virginia several times a day every day. There was talk more than 20 years ago of a Virginia bypass. I was a member of Cavan County Council at the time and we talked about preferred routes. That was all abandoned when the recession came. There is talk of it again now and it is back on the agenda, but God knows at what cost. There was a cost to initially planning it before it had to be abandoned. All the costs have accumulated again and we are still talking about another five, six or seven years before we see the end result.

There is quite a considerable piece of land just outside Virginia. It would be perfect for industrial development but cannot be developed because of the transport infrastructure. That has been said. It has been sitting there for years. It would bring much-needed employment into an area that is very dependent on agriculture mainly and on small industry as well. There is no clear mass of investment.

The area, the northern and western region, had the lowest share of investment in public tenders worth more than €1 million, at less than 10%, compared with the eastern and midland region, which constituted 66.5%. Of the larger tenders of more than €20 million, the area saw less than 6%, while the eastern and midland regions saw 75.2%. There is a significant imbalance.

There is also lower investment in undergraduate funding in the northern and western region. We have an equal share of graduates but they cannot find work in the region and are forced to work in another region of Ireland or another country altogether because of the lack of investment. We need investment in transport and energy. We also need investment in water and wastewater services because housing is needed if we want to increase employment in an area. It is a deterrent to investors coming into the region because they cannot find housing for their workers. For all of those things to happen, there must be significant investment.

We cannot overestimate the significant negative impact that the hard border had on the Cavan-Monaghan and Border regions for many years. Local roads were blown up and communities were divided. Farms were even divided at the time. I commend the incredible work of the Irish Central Border Area Network, ICBAN, and the other regional Border authorities that are working with their counterparts in the North and trying to bring investment into the area. It has been successful to a degree but it is not sufficient and more needs to be done.

Tourism also needs investment. Someone said to me during the pandemic when they could not go abroad that they visited Cavan instead. They said it is a hidden gem that is not promoted. We could look at that. Anything that will create more employment opportunities for people in those regions needs to be considered and invested in. I thank the Minister.