Employment Situation In The West Still Poor

During leaders questions in the Dail on Wednesday I told the Taoiseach Enda Kenny that it was simply not good enough that there were 4,000 people less in employment in the Western Region in 2015 than was the case in 2013. I said that there was a general malaise of neglect by the government in several important areas in the west. I pointed to the chaos in the mental services area in county Roscommon, the absence of proper broadband services in many areas in the west, the withdrawl of TenT funding from projects in the west and the need for other major infrastructural projects such as improved rail and road links, increased investment in Knock Airport and other projects. I asked the Taoiseach to set up a special task force to address the many problems that we have in the west in several important areas of economic development.