Does the Tánaiste remember saying, "So long as I am Taoiseach Waterford will not be neglected or forgotten"? He said he considered Waterford to be "a litmus test for the Republic of Opportunity ... one in which every part of the country has an equal chance to share in our country's prosperity".

These words were not said in the Sturm und Drang of an election campaign, rather they were said a few weeks after he became Taoiseach in the summer of 2017 in what was probably his first visit outside Dublin. What was really amazing about that speech is that he perfectly formulated the tough predicament of the region and the practical impact of years of political neglect.

The Tánaiste saw what was happening. He promised change. Most people in Waterford know his Bausch & Lomb speech very well. It really is the hope that kills.

Budget 2022 is being framed at the moment, as is the review of the Ireland 2040 capital projects. The last Ireland 2040 capital projects spreadsheet listed 96 significant capital projects projected to cost €10.2 billion, which I brought up with the Tánaiste in the House some months ago. Just four of these projects were located in the south east, with just €304 million of the total expenditure. Just under 10% of our population lives in the south east, so a fair share would be nine projects and €907 million.

Unfortunately, we are still awaiting the sunny uplands that the Tánaiste foresaw in 2017. We are still awaiting the 24-7 cardiac care that the Tánaiste had hoped was imminent, still awaiting the national recognition of the health inequality being waged on vulnerable and acutely sick south-east cardiac patients, and still awaiting the higher education investment and the public private partnership building that has been promised and postponed yet again. There is no mention of any other main investment in the campus of the new technological university, not even remediation moneys to stop the rainwater at present entering the roof of the engineering building. Everyone is worried that our search and rescue helicopter service will be pulled and our airport shuttered. Our hospital is still suffering under the yoke of Cork politics. The white-hot idea in Sláintecare was to throw us to the Dublin wolves.

A lot of hope in the south east hangs on the revised capital plan. I hope we will not continue to be disappointed.

I thank the Deputy. I remember that speech well and I remember visiting Bausch & Lomb that day. It was a very positive day. We were announcing additional jobs for the region, and those jobs have been delivered and have happened.

In the past couple of years, there have been some very significant and positive developments for Waterford, which I know the Deputy will acknowledge. We have made some real progress on developing a technological university for the south east, centred on Waterford. I am hopeful, if not confident, that it is only a matter of months before that designation can happen. I think that is really important and will make a real difference, not just for Waterford city but also for the south east as a whole. We have seen the opening of the Dunmore wing in the hospital. Only four hospitals in the country had a major extension in the past three or four years, and Waterford University Hospital was one of those, with the Dunmore wing, which is a very significant addition to services at the hospital. We have had the commitment of nearly €30 million to the north quays, a project which Deputy Shanahan, Senator Cummins and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, are very committed to. I am glad that allocation has been made as that can be transformative for the city.

We have also seen some very significant job creation, led by the IDA, in the past couple of years. There has been a 24% increase in the number of IDA jobs in the past four or five years in the south east, with nearly 1,000 IDA jobs announced between Wexford, Waterford and Kilkenny only in the last year, so significant progress has been made. As the Deputy knows, an allocation was made to the airport but, for reasons beyond the control of the Government, it has not been possible for the airport to draw that down.

Crucially, the Sláintecare regional integrated care organisations which were signed off by the Government in 2019 re-established the south east, if you like, as a regional integrated care organisation area, which is something I strongly support.

In regard to the analysis the Deputy raised, I have read that analysis and I am familiar with it. I think it is incomplete because it discounts, or counts for nothing, certain projects. It does not count the national broadband plan, for example. I do not know how much of the national broadband plan is being invested in County Waterford but I think it is a pretty significant amount, and I can check that. That analysis does not take account of that, for example. It also discounts any investments that are less than €25 million or €20 million and, of course, an analysis that does that is going to skew investment towards the big cities, where the big projects happen. In a lot of counties, and in counties with lower populations than Dublin or Cork, the projects are smaller - they are €5 million projects, €10 million projects and €15 million projects - and in that analysis they are counted as nothing. That is incorrect. It is almost like saying that if money goes to a sports club, a community centre or a small bypass, it does not count, and I think that analysis, therefore, is flawed.

I thank the Tánaiste for his response but I have to say I do not accept it. It would be very helpful to see proper granular data on capital spending. To that purpose, after our last engagement on this subject, I asked the Oireachtas Library and Research Service, which does really excellent work, to look at this and to prepare a report to see where public money goes. Believe it or not, they could not provide me with the analysis because they do not have access to the data. It is very hard not to reach the conclusion that the vast bulk of this discretionary capital spending is being funnelled into Dublin and Cork, home to almost all of our Ministers. I am not sure if the Tánaiste is aware of the list of projects that are being funded, the very large projects which he mentioned, such as the children's hospital, the MetroLink, the Ringsend water supply and the M20 Limerick to Cork motorway at €1 billion. These are really large-scale State projects and we are not seeing them. Most of our projects have been knocking around Dublin for more than a decade now, unactioned and slow-walked. Meanwhile, Cork and Dublin are on to the next new shiny thing. It is heartbreaking, to be honest.

I thank the Deputy. The M20 project between Limerick and Cork is one that I strongly support and I know the Deputy does too. It is important to bear in mind that there have been very significant motorway projects that benefit Waterford. The Dublin to Waterford motorway is complete and it was done before the Cork to Limerick one. Just in recent times, we have done New Ross, and while New Ross obviously is of particular benefit to Wexford, it is of benefit to Waterford as well.

Perhaps what I could help the Deputy with is some of that granular data, and I would be happy to provide it to his office. To give a few examples, there was €1.2 million under the regional regeneration fund for County Waterford, mainly going to Cappoquin, and €10.63 million in the transformation fund for the technological university for the south east, bringing the total allocation for that to €14.33 million. As I mentioned earlier, almost €30 million has been allocated to the north quays project, which I know we are strong supporters of. Of course, the cath lab is now very much under way, and I know the Deputy has worked very hard on that and is very committed to it.

I want to say that, obviously, when it comes to putting the national development plan review together, we will proof it and we will make sure every region in Ireland gets a fair share of investment.