People in Waterford and the south east know that the Taoiseach and the Government have forgotten them. In the election of 2011, 2016 and 2020, voters from across the south east who had been left to stew in their anger turned away from the traditional parties of government. Parliamentary responses I copied to the Taoiseach's office in recent weeks show that University Hospital Waterford, the south-east regional model 4 hospital, received just €83 million capital investment in the past ten years.

By contrast, in the same decade, the Government awarded €227 million on average to the comparator model 4 hospitals in Galway, Limerick and Cork. A sum of €87 million versus one of €227 million is evidence of pure discrimination against the south-east region.

During Leaders' Questions on 11 July last, the Taoiseach, in respect of University Hospital Waterford, stated: "under this Government €91 million has been invested in the hospital so far." Copies of parliamentary questions that I gave to the Taoiseach and each of his Ministers recently show that Waterford was awarded just €36.7 million in capital health funding by this Thirty-third Dáil, not €91 million the Taoiseach suggested. Again, this was but a fraction of the €130 million on average given to the other three hospitals I mentioned in that four-year period. The Taoiseach's statement to the House on 11 July was misleading and untrue. I therefore invite him to correct the record of the Dáil when he responds.

Given the evidence of ten years of discriminatory capital underinvestment in the hospital in Waterford, I ask whether the Taoiseach understands the right of people in the south east to be angry when they look at the current Dublin-Cork Cabinet? The evidence of shafting when it comes to investment extends beyond our hospital into the south east's aviation sector, its public transport and road development, its generation of foreign and direct investment generation and, most egregiously and especially, its higher education sector.

In the context of the South East Technological University, the Government has slow-walked a land purchase while providing no capital to carry out design work and nothing to fund construction of a new teaching building on this land site. This is despite its clear understanding that not a single new teaching building has been delivered on the campus in Waterford this millennium. The Waterford engineering building, first promised by the Taoiseach in 2011, was sideswiped by Government into a 2020 secondary phasing investment process. It is now just another broken promise to add to the many previous such promises. The three Government programmes between 2011 and 2020 singled out Waterford Institute of Technology for special attention. This is now manifested as a natty rebrand of the region in an underfunded merger. I know the Taoiseach is tired of me raising this issues. He will feel compelled to demonstrate that I am wrong by referencing other regional developments in order to prove that everything is okay. However, people in Waterford and the south east know that we are not getting our fair share. We are not fools and should not be taken as such.

The protests in respect of Irish Water were not properly understood by the Government of the day. They were never really about water. Rather, they were an expression of seething anger on the part of people who felt ignored, mistreated, let down and left behind. Despite his finely tuned political antenna, the Taoiseach does not seem to understand the building anger in the region, nor does the Government seem to be motivated to do anything to assuage it. In one of his first speeches on taking office, the Taoiseach promised that Waterford would not be forgotten. Ironically, however, that is precisely what the Government continues to do.

There has been considerable investment in University Hospital Waterford under this Government. Just since 2019, there has been a 40% increase in staffing at the hospital. The hospital's budget is now approximately €270 million. There has been a 33% increase in the budget since 2019. There has been considerable investment in Waterford. That includes the second cath lab, which people in the region campaigned very hard for over a long period. That is open now, and we want to extend the hours to weekends as soon as possible. There is a new outpatient unit. There is also the Dunmore wing, which I have had the pleasure to visit, and the new palliative care unit.

I assure the Deputy that I do not think that investment in University Hospital Waterford has been adequate either. That is why there needs to be more. Among the future investments coming is the new surgical hub, which will help people to get operations they need much more quickly, and the replacement of the adult mental health unit with a 50 single-bed unit, which I think will be a considerable improvement too. Of course, we need to examine future capacity at the hospital. It is a hospital that performs very well and that experiences very little emergency department overcrowding. It really helped out when the fire happened in Wexford hospital. Hospitals that perform well should be rewarded. That is why I want to see more investment happening in Waterford University Hospital in the coming years. The Deputy can be sure that is going to happen.

The Taoiseach did not actually correct the record in respect of what I highlighted to him. I am glad that he seeks support for University Hospital Waterford, as do I. Since the two cath labs opened - they are operating 60 hours a week - the hospital is emulating the same service activity as the Cork centre, which has five cath labs and 168 hours scheduled. This is despite the fact the Herity report in 2015 indicated that there was no requirement for a second cath lab and that the emergency services should be taken out of Waterford.

I can extend that to our technological university. We have had no capital investment there whatsoever, beyond a land purchase and, as I pointed out to the Taoiseach, no funding to build a building. The engineering building is nowhere to be seen. I could see on television during the week three senior Ministers walking around DCU, smiling while they awarded €61 million in accommodation grants, with nothing done for the south-eastern regional university. There has been no extension of the borrowing framework, no looking at lecturers' contracts as promised, and nothing done by way of accepting the €350 million project plan that has been put forward by the president of the university.

In recent weeks, the Taoiseach produced his capital calculator to show how much money Fine Gael is putting back into people's pockets. I suggest he might look at a calculator to see how much it has taken out of the south-eastern region and how it has left us behind, because we are suffering inequity. I have worked very hard with the Taoiseach and the Government to try to address that but it is not happening at this point.

In terms of clarifying the record, I think I have done that already by correspondence. Like a lot of things, investment depends on how you count it, that is, whether you count the spend when it is actually spent, which often happens after the building has been built, or when it is announced or when it is under construction.

What the Deputy and I do not disagree on is that Waterford and the south east need more investment, and I can guarantee him that so long as this Government remains in office, and so long as there is no fundamental change in our economic and foreign policy, that will continue to be possible. That is why it is important this Government should remain in office. There has been considerable IDA Ireland investment in Waterford and the south east. As the Deputy pointed out, we established the long-promised university for the south east and that includes the purchase of the Waterford Crystal site in Waterford, which is very welcome. We will get the engineering building done, but the Deputy will be aware there are complications in the negotiations there.

Work has begun on the north quays development, which will transform the city of Waterford, opening up a whole new quarter. It even involves the moving of the train station, so it is a huge investment. There has also been considerable road investment in the south east, such as the New Ross bypass and in Enniscorthy. In respect of Waterford Airport, we are keen to invest in that. The Minister, Deputy McGrath, visited it not too long ago. We made a commitment on funding. It turns out it is not enough. A further business case has been submitted for more funding and we are examining it with due haste.