The situation with regard to infrastructure around the country is poor, to say the least. In rural areas and the north west it is extremely poor. I will mention a few of the issues. The south Leitrim water scheme, which provides water for more than two thirds of the population of County Leitrim, is currently operating at more than 100% capacity. It is meant to operate at 80% capacity so there is little spare capacity, but it is operating at over 100%. If someone in the region looks for planning permission to build 100 houses, and one of the key infrastructural issues is housing, they cannot get a letter from Irish Water to say they will get water because the water is not available. That is just one example of a major infrastructural problem that is blocking progress and people having some chance of having a home to live in. They cannot build because the infrastructure is not in place. One of the key pieces of infrastructure along the west coast is the western rail corridor. We have been talking for years about what can be done and the positive impact reopening that rail link from Sligo right down that corridor would have on the entire western seaboard. That project needs to be prioritised. Reports have been done but the problem with many of the reports on the western rail corridor is that they look at the issue in a very narrow way. When they check how many people would use the rail line, they use the number of people living within 5 km of the line. The rail line to Dublin goes past my house. Most people travel 30 or 40 miles to get to the railway. It is a much bigger piece of infrastructure that could service a lot more people than those living within a narrow corridor around it. It is critical that that infrastructure is put in place. Health is another major issue. In Sligo University Hospital we have serious problems with overcrowding, insufficient bed numbers and the age of the infrastructure. The roof of the theatre for orthopaedics leaked last summer. When the roof was fixed it was then discovered there was another problem with the heating. For the past year, the theatre has been closed more often than it has been open. That is because that particular piece of infrastructure has aged out. It is not fit for purpose and needs to be built out anew. We have a similar problem with regard to renal services. People attend the hospital for dialysis but again, the services in place are totally inadequate. Promises have been made but nothing has been delivered. We have serious problems with road infrastructure in my constituency and everywhere else. The problem seems to be that Governments continually look at where the crisis is rather than planning long term for the future, which is what needs to happen. We need a Government that will plan for the future and provide services and critical infrastructure for people in order that we have an economy that functions. Most of the west, including my part of the country, has the greatest potential because it has the least investment. The eastern seaboard is bursting at the seams. Nobody can get a house to rent in Dublin, yet in other parts of the country where there is ample space and opportunity, there is no investment. That is what we need to get balanced right. We need to get proper rail and road infrastructure in the regions, we need to get proper investment into the regions, and we need to ensure we can do that by having investment from the Government. These are not costs the taxpayer will bear and are then gone forever. They are investments that will pay off dividends in the long run. This is why it is absolutely critical the Government recognises the need to provide the maximum amount of funding for key projects in areas where we have the most potential, particularly in areas in the north west, throughout the midlands and throughout the western seaboard where we have the same issues. People always say to me that when they educate their children, most of them will be getting jobs for graduates and a lot of those graduate jobs are elsewhere, not back in their own region. The main reason is that they do not have the infrastructure to get those jobs to move into the region. One example was presented to me the other day and when I saw it, I wondered what was wrong. We meet the Atlantic Technological University every year as part of our engagement with IBEC. The university has for years been looking for the Government to allow it to borrow money to build its own student accommodation on its own land. That is what it has looked to do. Probably for the last five or six years, every time we have met the university, it has asked, "Can you please lobby the Government so that we can have the right to borrow money to build the houses so we can have them into the future and we can rent them out to the students?" It would be an income source for the university. Last week, the Minister announced that there is going to be a public private partnership. A private corporation or company is going to come in and build those houses, rent them out to the students and make the money on them, with land owned by the university. It is again back to this thing of providing an opportunity for the well-connected rather than providing something that would provide a piece of critical infrastructure for the people who need it, the students in that region and everywhere else. This is one of the problems this Government has. Everything it does, all of the time, is to look after the well-connected rather than the people who elected them and who they should be looking after, up and down the length and breadth of this nation.

Sentiment score: -0.08