As a member of the Regional Group, I welcome the budget announced yesterday. The phrase "a wartime budget" is apt. I particularly welcome the increases in the health and education spend. I share some of my colleagues' reservations that an opportunity has possibly been lost to create social change in order to encourage migration to the regions, remote working, affordable housing and the overall tenet of rebalancing Ireland. I hope that is something the Government will address.

I wish to highlight the €10.1 billion capital allocation, which is also welcome. Will the south east get its 8.89% per capita pro rata share? I remind the Taoiseach of the last capital tracking index from 2018 to 2022 of large-scale capital enterprise. In that, the south east got €97 million. Cork and Kerry got €902 million and Dublin got €5 billion, a rate which is 15 times more per capita.

The major road projects announced yesterday are, I am sure, welcome to constituents, but an upgrade to the N24 to create a southern linkage from Rosslare through Waterford, Tipperary or Cork and on to Limerick to join Galway and Mayo was not mentioned. This would see a step change in the southern region road connectivity and would benefit multiple counties.

It is affordable, it makes economic sense and it is absolutely consistent with green thinking of improving road and possible rail links to the ports of Waterford, Rosslare, Cork and Foynes in Limerick.

There is no mention of specific funding or recognition of Waterford as the future fulcrum of south-east regional economic activity and the driver of same. There has been no announcement on our urban regeneration and development infrastructural funding for the North Quays project. There has been nothing to signal the upgrading of University Hospital Waterford as the lowest-funded model 4 hospital in the country. I correct the record from the last time we spoke, as there is no second cardiac lab diagnostic activity taking place in Waterford at this time and our cardiac waiting list is growing almost exponentially.

Beyond that, there is nothing to recognise the primacy of Waterford Institute of Technology, WIT, in the south-east technical university proposal. This is the most highly functioning institute of technology in the country, garnering the highest rate of EU research funding of all institutes of technology. The recent transformation grant was announced of €5.1 million, which places it behind all the other regions with a national university. That hardly seems fair, and we have been seeking capital refurbishment and developments for more than 30 years. With our Waterford metropolitan area strategic plan, our border has not been extended and we cannot take in Tramore or New Ross, although borders in Limerick and Cork have been extended.

What is the Government's future attitude and commitment to fairness for Waterford and the south east? Do we matter in health, education and economic revival? The south east is currently the worst performing region in the country and prior to Covid-19, Waterford had the highest city unemployment in the country. Will the Taoiseach commit to future funding so as to bring fairness for Waterford and the south east? Will he commit that this will be delivered in the lifetime of this Government?

I thank the Deputy for his question and raising the matters relating to Waterford in particular. Any previous Government with which I was involved put much investment into Waterford. As a former Minister with responsibility for education, I know the land we purchased for Waterford Institute of Technology was essential to its growth. It has developed into a very fine institute of technology and it can now move to becoming a technological university in association with the institute of technology at Carlow. It is essential for Waterford and progress is being made in that regard.

There are approximately 7,000 people working across 36 IDA Ireland companies in Waterford and there is great potential for further foreign direct investment. There is some very good quality companies in the indigenous base that can develop. Working with the institute and its technology research base, along with others, Enterprise Ireland can help the growth of entrepreneurial companies in Waterford and more generally across the south east.

A former Minister, Mr. Martin Cullen, was responsible for some very substantial and significant infrastructural investment in Waterford. Knocking a few doors in Waterford in recent times, I picked up that people had nostalgic memories of him in Waterford because of that.

I get the Deputy's point on the future and we want to think about how we can advance the area. The technological university process is moving on. The Deputy knows the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, is drafting a memo for the Government on a funding package for the North Quays development. The urban regeneration and development fund provides opportunities for a number of projects of that kind to be resourced and developed. We will proactively move to see how we can help Waterford to develop that exciting project.

The second cath lab in Waterford has gone to tender. That is a step forward and the deadline for the receipt of applications is 16 November. It is envisaged that the bidding will commence in the first quarter of next year. I know the Deputy will be tenacious on this and keep at us on the timeline but it is happening and it will happen.

The €5 million for the technological university is important for the south east. It is important money that should be spent. Waterford and Carlow institutes of technology have moved to an advanced stage of the process of establishing that technological university, and this will have very significant implications across the board.

We have significant commitments in the programme for Government on the development of cities and Waterford is critical in this regard. Connectivity, including road connectivity, is vital, especially with the growing importance of Rosslare and so on. Public transport is also important, and I know the Minister for Transport has significant ambitions around city public transport networks, as well as rail more generally.

I thank the Taoiseach for his comments. I agree with the Taoiseach that it is probably more than a decade, when Mr. Cullen was a Minister, since Waterford could look at any kind of significant capital infrastructural spend from the Government. It is probably a testament to that being the case that I am standing here now.

In Waterford and the south east we are absolutely ready to play our part in the economic revival of Ireland. We have fantastic innovation clusters and a vibrant agrifood sector. We have a college performing way above other colleges in the country, as is our hospital. All we are asking for is an acknowledgement of this and fairness. We are not looking for a handout but we are looking to be helped up so we can make a really significant drive for the regional recovery of Ireland. We can play a major role and we are ready to do it. We are looking for a Government commitment to fund it so we can achieve primacy in this country.

Fairness is a valid ask. The programme for Government identifies and recognises Waterford as a regional city and investment must follow that designation. The recovery fund in the budget of €3.4 billion is over and above the Covid-19 contingency fund and it will provide opportunities for infrastructural development, reskilling and retraining, as well as supporting investment in jobs.

There are some very good quality companies in the south east and Waterford, in particular. My experience has been that it is important to leverage those quality companies to create an indigenous entrepreneurial activity. Many people from multinationals have gone on to create their own companies, as the Deputy knows. We must work on that agenda. I often felt we could have done better with financial services in Waterford from a foreign direct investment perspective, and I am keen on that.

We want regional development and we need to rebalance the country's economy and society. This means doing far more for cities like Waterford than what has happened in the past two or three decades.