We provided for that. The Ballincollig by-pass is likewise an essential part of the LUTS plan. Following the opening of the latest phase of the south city link road, huge congestion has built up in the Bishopstown area of Cork. Despite pleading with the Minister for funds to alleviate the congestion, no action has been taken. The relief road between Ardaroistig and Curraheen will not be provided, due to lack of Government funds. Significant progress has not been made on the Ballincollig by-pass, neither has significant grant aid been made available to Cork County Council to enable it to accelerate the project. This by-pass is the only solution to the traffic congestion problems in the Bishopstown area. This Government has not responded to the groundswell of emotion and anger articulated by local residents at the increase in traffic from the link road developments. The Government has ignored this anger and decided not to allocate any additional funds to enable the by-pass to proceed and be implemented on a much quicker timescale than that originally envisaged.
The Government's record on the environment has also been extremely poor. Additional funds have not been made available to Cork Corporation for the management of the existing landfill site. The corporation has had to borrow more than £2 million to provide for a leach treatment plant. The Government failed to give funding from central sources to assist the corporation in dealing with a serious environmental hazard. The corporation and Cork County Council are to be congratulated on their joint waste disposal strategy, which has been developed at local level with their own initiative and no help from central Government. The Minister for the Environment, Deputy Howlin, hid behind the "polluter pays" principle and used it to prevent additional funds being allocated to Cork to deal with its waste disposal problem.
Despite the progressive and constructive approach of the local authorities, there has been no partnership approach by central Government. The Minister has not come clean on this issue. While abolishing water charges he has kept refuse charges in place in Cork and throughout the country, despite Democratic Left's promise to abolish them. There is a good reason that such charges remain in place. The Minister has not advised the public that refuse charges will increase significantly in the years ahead, due to the "polluter pays" principle. From my experience on the waste disposal committee of Cork Corporation, it is clear that such costs will quadruple in the coming years and refuse charges will also increase. The Minister's policy is not to give additional funding to local authorities for modern waste disposal strategies. The logical conclusion to be drawn from that refusal is that local charges for refuse collection will increase dramatically. The Minister should admit this publicly and I sound a warning that it will happen. The recent abolition of water charges was only an election gimmick and the Minister should be questioned more carefully on his waste disposal policy, particularly the funding implications.
On health matters, there has been considerable neglect of Cork, particularly of the accident and emergency and maternity services. There are three hospital casualty departments in Cork — at Cork University Hospital, the Mercy Hospital and the South Infirmary — and the number of new patients attending each unit has increased over the past three years with no consequent increase in staffing levels. All three A and E departments require to be extended and upgraded, particularly that at Cork University Hospital. The resuscitation room in this hospital can only accommodate three trolleys, yet this is a designated training unit outside Dublin. In addition, post-graduate nursing training in A and E, intensive care and coronary care is not available in Cork at present. Nurses seeking to pursue any of these qualifications must do so in Dublin, usually at their own expense.
The staffing levels in each hospital are inadequate.The steering committee for A and E services in Cork has condemned the lack of medical and nursing personnel as the major problem facing such services in the city. There is only one A and E consultant between the three hospitals, who attends the Mercy and the South Infirmary for one three hour period each per week. For the rest of the week these A and E departments are staffed by non-consultant hospital doctors.
There is a clear need for a central, state of the art maternity unit to be located at Cork University Hospital. We await a clear allocation of funding from the Minister for Health in this regard but so far this has not happened. Some progress has been made but a clear commitment from the Government is required.
The decision of the Taoiseach and the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications, Deputy Dukes, to reject the licensing application from the South Coast TV deflector company illustrates the complete betrayal of the people of Cork by the Fine Gael-Labour-Democratic Left Government.
Clear commitments were give by the Fine Gael Party on the provision of licences to South Coast. They were not honoured. Political promises were made in a crowded hall in Carraigaline on the eve of the Cork South Central by-election. I am sure the Minister of State, Deputy Coveney, remembers that event very well because it played a role in his election. Up to 1,000 people clapped the Taoiseach as he gave a solemn commitment that, on his return to power, he would immediately grant an interim licence. He has been in power for more than two and a half years, but his Government has done a complete U-turn and rejected the application from South Coast. The High Court placed an obligation on the Government to consider the licence application from South Coast. It considered the application but rejected it, thereby making the company vulnerable to legal action from Cork Multi Channel.
People are sick and tired of this cynical approach to substantive issues. The Taoiseach should not have made that promise in Carraigaline if he was not in a position to implement it. He clearly made it without undertaking any proper research, or he deliberately misled the people at that time. The people of Cork will adjudicate on that in the next general election. This issue illustrates the bankrupt approach of the Government to the Cork region and its lack of any overall vision for the people of that region.
Fianna Fáil is proud of its record in the Cork area. The Cork-Swansea Ferry Company, which is now such a success, was restored through direct Fianna Fáil Government initiatives. Successive Fianna Fáil Ministers gave the capital funding required for the re-establishment of that service, which was lost during the previous Fine Gael-Labour Government of the 1981-6 period.
In addition, in 1987 Fianna Fáil ploughed huge additional resources into Cork Airport, resulting in extended runways, more modern radar equipment, an extension of the terminal, and an all round improvement of the airport ambience and infrastructure. The Fianna Fáil Government succeeded in directing significant structural funds to Cork Airport. I pay tribute to a former Minister of State at the Department of Tourism, Transport and Communications, Deputy Denis Lyons, who spearheaded those initiatives and was responsible for significant funds being made available for Cork Airport and the Cork region generally. He has a very proud record.
On the infrastructural side, I have already mentioned Fianna Fáil's commitment to the implementation of the LUTS, and how it contrasts with slowing down the implementation of that strategy by the present Government. On the environmental front, I have referred to the waste disposal issue. In passing, I pay tribute to the former Minister for the Environment, Deputy Michael Smith, who banned the burning of bituminous coal in the Cork city area, resulting in cleaner, healthier air for the people of Cork. That was a very solid achievement of the former Minister, and one for which the people of Cork will remember him generously.
Fianna Fáil intends to build on that record. We intend to adopt a vision for the future of Cork city and the south west generally. Central to that vision is the creation of additional jobs, the coordination of an industrial strategy involving industrial agencies and third level institutions, and the provision of additional educational services for Cork, particularly in the areas which suffer social and economic disadvantage. We will accelerate and continue our commitment to the implementation of the LUTS strategy. We will also join in partnership with Cork Corporation in developing a Temple Bar initiative for Cork city, and in further developing the urban initiative project.