FF leader questions government commitment to the west

Edwin McGreal

Leader of Fianna FΡil MicheΡl Martin has questioned the commitment of the current Government to the west of Ireland in the wake of the resignation of Paddy McGuinness as Chairperson of the Western Development Commission.
Mr McGuinness announced his resignation last week and said among the main reasons for doing so was: “I believe strongly that there is absolutely no commitment at either political or administrative level to balanced regional development nor is there any worthwhile plan to redress rural decline.”
Speaking in Castlebar on Wednesday last during a two-day tour of Mayo, MicheΡl Martin claimed the last two Fine Gael-led governments attitude towards the west was not as strong as the previous Fianna FΡil governments he was a minister in.
“I think the present government contrasts very sharply with previous governments. The cabinet I was a member of went down to the headquarters of the Western Development Commission and held a cabinet meeting in Ballaghaderreen. We’d a real commitment to it and we provided funding to it and we took on board a lot of its initiatives in terms of railways for example that people in the east didn’t see the merit of and didn’t want to happen.
“We supported the Leader project for example. Leader has been cut by €9 million in Mayo by the present government. There’s no contrast and no comparison with how the current government has dealt with rural Ireland and previous governments,” he said.
He said Fianna FΡil tried to change departments with a view to addressing issues in the west.  
“We were the party who said before the last election that there should be a department of rural affairs. We had established that in previous governments with Eamon Ó Cuiv in charge of it and he brought in the Clar programme and a a lot of programmes for the islands. We did a lot of stuff. I don’t buy the argument that they’re all the same. They’re not all the same.
“Government slashed Leader not- withstanding the fact that Leader were hailed in Europe as among the best of their kind. Phil Hogan set about dismantling it just as he dismantled the town councils as well, so as far as I’m concerned we did show commitment in many spheres. It will never be enough, I accept that. I take criticism as well. We made a significant outreach to the Western Development Commission and other organisations. It is regrettable that Paddy is not going forward. I can understand that he is at the end of his tether,” he said.