Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I am very pleased to have the opportunity to open today’s debate. I launched Our Rural Future in 2021. It is the most ambitious and transformational rural development policy ever introduced by an Irish Government. It is a five-year plan, we are just over two years into its implementation and already we are seeing the hugely positive impact it is having on the ground. As we stand here today we have more people living in rural Ireland than ever before. We have more people working in rural Ireland than ever before. In the history of the State there has never been more investment going into rural communities than under this Government. I know over the course of today’s debate there will be a wide range of issues raised and people will outline their differing views. The Opposition has a job to do and I absolutely appreciate that.

3 o’clock

However, any fair analysis has to recognise these three key indicators: more people living in rural Ireland, more jobs in rural Ireland and more investment in rural Ireland.

I am proud to come from Aghabog in County Monaghan. Aghabog is every bit as rural as it sounds. Rural development is close to my heart as I know it is close to the hearts of many of my colleagues on all sides of the House. I am not going to stand here and pretend there are not challenges in rural Ireland. There are challenges and there are absolutely areas where we need to do more as a Government. I hope we can have a constructive debate that recognises those challenges but also acknowledges the good work that is happening on the ground and the significant investment that is going into our rural communities.

Rural development is a key priority in the programme for Government. Our Rural Future is a policy that was developed using the principle of a place-based approach. This recognises that as rural communities are different, with individual challenges and often unique strengths, there can be no one-size-fits-all approach to rural development. That is why my priority as Minister for Rural and Community Development is to empower communities. I want them to identify their own local development priorities and proposals and support them to meet the ambitions of their communities and reach their full potential. That grassroots, ground-up approach is the cornerstone of the various funding streams that I have put in place across my Department. I might know what is needed in Monaghan but there is no point in my trying to impose something on communities in counties Kerry or Cork. The local people in our towns, villages and parishes throughout the country know what is needed in their own communities. That is why the ideas and proposals under all the funding programmes I have put in place across my Department, whether it is the rural regeneration fund, the town and village renewal scheme, the outdoor recreation fund, CLÁR or the community centre fund, have to come from communities themselves. Under the revised national development plan, capital funding of €962 million is available to support rural and community development projects until 2025. I can genuinely say the one thing I hear from local authorities and community groups all the time is that there has never been more funding available for rural development projects. To date my Department’s rural regeneration and development fund, RRDF, has provided almost €400 million for more than 200 major projects countrywide. Over the past few months alone I have been fortunate enough to visit and open a wide range of completed RRDF projects throughout the country. These include the Banteer Sports Field and Working Hub in County Cork, a state-of-the-art recreational facility developed by the local community; the fantastic Yeats Trail in County Sligo, which will be a huge boost to tourism in the north-west region; the Yard Hub in Abbeyshrule, County Longford which is a wonderful example of an old, derelict building dating back to the 1850s which has been completely renovated and transformed into a remote working hub; the new Trim Cultural Centre and library in County Meath and the beautiful Mount Congreve Estate and Gardens in County Waterford which will be a jewel in the crown for tourism in the south east. This coming Sunday, I look forward to opening Fethard Town Park in County Tipperary which is another fantastic community-led project. These are just a few examples of some of the projects that have been supported with multimillion euro investments by my Department as part of Our Rural Future. I could talk all day about the work we are doing in developing our outdoor recreation amenities. In rural Ireland we are blessed with the natural amenities on our doorstep, be it our mountains, lakes, forests, beaches or bogs. Through our new national outdoor recreation strategy we are investing hugely in developing these amenities and improving access for locals and visitors alike.

Last year I opened the Slieve Bloom Mountain Bike Trail in County Offaly. It was great to meet with the local businesses in the village of Kinnity, ranging from the local coffee shop to the bike rental business that have opened up on foot of that investment. There are stories identical to that throughout the country. There is a new-found appreciation of our great outdoors post-Covid and local economies in rural areas are reaping the benefits. In particular, inland counties that have not traditionally had the same tourism draw as some of our coastal counties are benefiting from the development of these amenities.

The recent census results show population growth in every county for the first time. This reverses a trend of population decline in some rural areas that we have seen for decades. In the past, young people left their local communities in search of work. We now have full employment. There is a job for everybody who wants one. Just a few short years ago did any of us think we would be able to say that? In May alone 1,000 jobs were announced at Dexcom in Athenry, 600 jobs were announced at Analog Devices in Limerick and more than 400 jobs were announced at Boston Scientific in Clonmel. Enterprise Ireland announced record job creation figures for last year and even better, more than 70% of these jobs are outside Dublin. Likewise, the majority of new jobs being created in IDA-supported companies are now in the regions. We can never take this progress for granted.

My thoughts today are with the 650 workers at Tara Mines. Officials from my Department of Social Protection are on the ground in Navan, working with the Department of Enterprise, Louth Meath Education and Training Board, LMETB, and other agencies to ensure the workers get the support they need.

One of the most positive findings of the recent census data was the fact that more than 750,000 workers, almost a third of the entire workforce, are now working remotely. I firmly believe remote working is the game changer for rural communities. Ireland is ahead of the curve internationally on this. We are rolling out the national broadband plan. That is high speed, fibre broadband to the home. It is a future-proofed network. Would I like to see it rolled out faster? Of course I would. In fairness, after delays arising from Covid-19, delivery is ramping up with between 3,000 and 4,000 premises being connected every month. It is a monumental project akin to rural electrification and every bit as important. A few years ago, many people were asking whether it was the right thing to do. Nobody is asking that question now.

One of the key commitments in Our Rural Future is the development of a network of 400 remote working hubs by 2025. My Department has invested more than €150 million in the development of remote working facilities in every county throughout the country. We already have 319 hubs on the Connected Hubs network. Therefore, we are well on course to meet our target of 400 hubs by 2025. I have visited many of these facilities in different parts of the country and they have the potential to deliver so much more to their communities than simply remote working spaces. They are being used as enterprise centres, start-up incubators, creative hubs and much more. Only this morning, along with the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, I launched a new initiative in conjunction with our technological universities to deliver blended learning courses through the Connected Hubs network. Last year I attended a Cabinet meeting remotely from a hub on Bere Island off the coast of County Cork. Only last week I opened a new gteic hub on Malin Beg in County Donegal. Just to give Members an idea, when driving along the road to Malin Beg the radio signal drops in the car. That is how remote the area is. Yet in that hub in the old school in Malin Beg they have high-speed broadband and a better mobile phone signal than I have in my own house in County Monaghan. The following day I was out on Arranmore Island launching the New Islands policy. I spoke to the managers of the hub there, Séamus and Adrian, and heard stories of young people who have come back from Seattle and people who work for financial services companies in Dublin and they can do it all from the hub on Arranmore. Some of the workers go out at lunch time, jump in the sea and go for a swim. Indeed, the manager said that sometimes a trail of sand leads into the remote working hub. On a sunny day on Arranmore, and it was a lovely day, would I rather be doing that or sitting in traffic on the M50?

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Or sitting in here.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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With high-speed broadband, people can do the same job in Ballybay, Ballsbridge, Malin Beg or Manhattan.

What does this mean for rural communities? It means people's sons and daughters can have a good career and live in their local community. It means they can build a house and start a family in their own locality. It means they can spend money in the local shop, their children can go to the local primary school and they can play for the local GAA club. Most important of all, it means a better quality of life. That is what remote working enables. Remote working hubs offer workers a good environment in which to work in their own community.

If we have more people working in rural Ireland, we need homes for them. The Croí Cónaithe vacant homes scheme has been a fantastic success, offering grants of between €50,000 and €70,000 for the refurbishment of vacant and derelict properties. I know from my constituency office there is huge interest in the scheme. We are already seeing work starting on properties that have been lying idle for years. In the same vein, the help-to-buy scheme is a big help for any young person building a new house in the country. For a young couple building their own home, they can get tax relief of €30,000 towards the cost. That is a huge help.

I said earlier that there are challenges in rural areas. Planning is one such challenge. None of us wants to see a return to the bad old days of ribbon development or houses being built on flood plains. However, there has to be a balance in this regard. Our planning regulations need to support people to build on their own land. We have a golden, once-in-a-generation opportunity now to support the return of young people to our rural parishes. Government policy must support this, not get in the way of it. It is critical that the forthcoming rural planning guidelines from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage recognise this.

There are many positive initiatives happening in rural areas under the remit of different Departments. The Macroom bypass opened last year following a €300 million investment. The new Westport to Castlebar road involved a €250 million investment in the west. There has been a major expansion of rural transport services, with enhanced services announced to 67 routes countrywide. The roll-out of the technological university model is now complete and is providing high-quality education opportunities for third-level students in regional locations. Almost €1 billion is being invested in school building projects throughout the country this year alone. More than €45 million was invested last year in the upgrade of 860-plus community centres. Town regeneration officers are in place in every county to utilise the rural regeneration and development fund, RRDF, the town and village renewal scheme and other funding programmes to bring vacant and derelict properties back into use. All of this investment stems from the €165 billion provided under the national development plan, NDP.

I have been in every county over the past two and a half years. Indeed, I have been to most of them two or three times at this stage. There is genuine positivity and optimism in rural communities at the moment. We have to seize this moment. That is what Our Rural Future is all about. I mentioned my home parish of Aghabog at the start of my contribution and I return to it as I conclude. Aghabog has a small rural GAA club. For a long time now, it either has not been able to field a team in some age groups or it has had to amalgamate with other clubs to make up the numbers. This year, for the first time in decades, Aghabog can field a team on its own at every level from under-tens right through to seniors. It is stories like this that convince me we are on the right track. I look forward to hearing Deputies' contributions to this debate.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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If the people in the Monaghan team are looking for a new manager, they know where to look.

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I am sharing time with Deputy English.

I thank the Minister for her leadership, energy and enthusiasm, which are evident in her 15-minute statement. As a Deputy who was first elected to this House in 2011, the greatest charge against me from the Opposition benches, as a rural-based Government backbencher from 2011 to 2016, was that we were seeing the death of rural Ireland. Nobody is saying that any more. The change can be directly traced back to the establishment of the Minister's Department and the significant focus successive governments have put on investing in rural Ireland. That has led to the benefits she outlined. I will touch on some of the particular benefits I am familiar with, but she has already articulated them clearly.

I welcome the opportunity to speak about rural Ireland and how the Government is investing in rural communities as more people than ever choose to live and work in them. Rural Ireland is always changing and evolving. There are many examples of this in my constituency of Kildare South. I refer to one in particular. In 2018, two of my nearest post offices, in the villages of Moone and Narraghmore, closed after the two long-standing postmasters retired following a lifetime of service to the local communities. There was understandable concern among people in the communities, which were raised in meetings locally that I attended. The most common question was not, "Where will I buy my stamp?" It was, "Where will I meet my neighbours?" That reflects the sense of what was being lost with the closure of the post offices.

The Old Hardware community-run project in Narraghmore, which the Minister has visited, is a model of how the system of Government support is empowering local communities. A single town and village renewal grant of just €80,000 from her Department enabled the local community to lease and renovate the building that was previously Kelly's Hardware before it closed in around 2005. The committee of 40 volunteers run the café on a not-for-profit basis and it is thriving, so much so that the local publican was encouraged to invest heavily during the Covid period in doing up her establishment and turning it into a gastropub. This is a rural pub that might otherwise have fallen into decline.

Kildare County Council recognised all this activity in the vicinity of Narraghmore. With some encouragement, it undertook a significant upgrading of the village's public realm, which is due to be completed later this year. This is a perfect example of how support from the Minister and her Department can be leveraged to deliver so much more. The small initial grant delivered hugely for the people of this community, who wanted to make things better for themselves. To take that to the next level, we need to support social enterprises such as those in Narraghmore and Moone in their application for support under the community services programme, CSP. Demand for that programme is very high and more money needs to be put towards it. Such is the success of the projects in both Narraghmore and Moone, they are now in the position of needing to hire and pay staff. They will need support in doing that. These projects are the ultimate example of social enterprises we have fostered and encouraged and which we now need to support to the next level. We also have a duty to make vital services such as schools, public transport links and healthcare available to support these thriving communities and ensure rural Ireland remains a great place in which to live, work and raise a family.

In my brief as Minister of State in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, I see the important role the agrifood sector has played in delivering employment opportunities in rural communities. I have visited many of these businesses. Tirlán's new plant in Belview will deliver 80 jobs and support 4,500 farm families who supply the cheese plant. Dairymaster's manufacturing headquarters in Causeway, County Kerry, employs almost 400 people. Driving across the beautiful hills of north Kerry, this amazing factory just appears before you. It is remarkable how the family who owns it has built the business up from very humble beginnings. Closer to my home, a world leader in food innovation, Kerry Group, employs 900 highly qualified people in Naas, which has brought additional economic activity to the county. The 164,000 jobs in the sector and the billions of euro in economic activity in rural communities are made possible by a strong agricultural sector and our long-standing traditions in food production.

As Minister of State, I have seen at first hand the really positive role food hubs have played in a number of counties and communities. Having opened one in Firies, County Kerry, a number of years ago, I was determined to see such a facility developed in my county. We in south Kildare have a very proud tradition of having some of the best agricultural land in the country and many traditional industries spinning off from that. This is particularly true in the Athy area, where Minch Malt produced so much malt and barley for Diageo. The decision by Diageo to build its new net-zero brewery in Kildare is directly associated with those strong linkages. The food hub in Athy is a model that can help in enabling small indigenous food businesses to spring up. I am delighted to have received confirmation from the Minister today that an application from the Athy food hub project for increased funding due to rising costs has been approved. It is being allocated an additional €830,000, bringing the total contribution from the Department of Rural and Community Development to €5.1 million for this incredibly important project in south Kildare.

The Athy food hub will deliver a space where food innovators and artisan producers can skill up their businesses in a bespoke environment, collaborate with each other, connect with local food producers and break into new markets, creating jobs and economic activity across south Kildare. Today's decision allows the Athy food hub project to go to tender, with construction hopefully commencing later this year. It is another great example of this Government's commitment to invest in rural communities. I look forward to seeing the tremendous benefits of this for our community.

To take another example across south Kildare, the Barrow Blueway project that initially got a €5 million allocation from the Department of Rural and Community Development is almost now complete. The blueway is a 46 km track along the Grand Canal Barrow line from Lowtown and Robertstown to Rathangan through Monasterevin and Athy. In Kildare, we suffer from a perception of affluence at times. People think that everyone in Kildare owns a racehorse. We have Kerry Group, Intel and Pfizer, and people think we are grand. That means that where there are pockets that are not thriving and where there are communities where there is a higher level of deprivation, it is difficult to get that level of support and economic activity. South-west Kildare is an area that has felt left behind for some time, but the economic boost that is coming from the Barrow Blueway down the line is really palpable for all to feel. That €5 million investment is going to have been the best State investment that I think we could have made in south Kildare. Coupled with the remote working strategy and our national broadband plan, we are delivering to ensure that rural Ireland continues to be a great place to live, work and visit. Long may that continue.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I echo the Minister of State's comments about the great work that is happening in the Department of Rural and Community Development. Today, the focus is on rural development and future-proofing rural Ireland. That has really been achieved through the policy document and Our Rural Future. It is having the desired impact. We have been here, over the years, with different policy launches and different programmes and initiatives, trying to bring together and drive action locally and focus the money. This document and the strategy do exactly that. The drive to protect and enhance rural Ireland that the Minister has got behind over the past two and a half years with her Department, and since the Department was formed over five years ago, is being achieved. We are having that desired impact. We can see the roll-out of funding right across our country in a joined-up way, through working with the local authorities and local agencies to achieve the best bang for our buck. I know that the Minister, coming from where she does, likes to make sure that we get the best value out of every euro of taxpayers' money. She is achieving that because there is matched funding. Local groups are coming together and local initiatives and ideas are being put forward. They are bringing forward plans and suggesting buildings that can be refurbished, reused or repurposed, and they are working with local authorities. Everyone is coming together to make the applications for funding through the Department, and they are successful when they put the work in. We are getting a bang for our work.

Many projects are under way. The Minister visited my county only a few weeks ago. Looking back over the past few years, more than €28 million in funding from her Department has been invested in many projects right throughout the county, from Castlepollard to Fore, and from Oldcastle, Athboy, Moylagh up into Dunderry, Enfield, Ballivor, Trim, Navan and even Bective. There are many areas that have felt an impact. Kilmessan is next on the list. We will be lodging an application with the Department very soon. Again, we can see the opportunity there. The projects that are worthwhile are being brought forward. With a Minister who is proactive in working with groups and who works in a proactive Department to engage with people to make it happen, we are achieving the impact that was talked about here a few years ago when the policy document was being launched. That is what this is about. We want to see all Departments coming together and working together to protect, enhance and future-proof rural Ireland. Key to that has been making it an attractive place in which to invest and create jobs.

We set out a number of years ago to give people the opportunity, the choice and the option to either continue living or to go back to live in rural Ireland. That is now happening because of the roll-out of a range of policies by the Department and other Departments. Those policies are backed up by real money to make this happen. That is making it easier to create jobs and to win jobs and investment, whether that is investing in all the various facilities to make our towns and villages look more attractive, investing in community hubs and community centres in order that people can congregate and run services from there, providing services badly needed in the local community, or investing in broadband, which is an absolute game-changer. An investment of more than €5 billion has been made in this country. It was a decision made and driven by Fine Gael and a Fine Gael-led Government to make that happen. Most people in this House outside of the Government opposed it at the time. They could not see the benefit in making that long-term investment in rural Ireland. We could see it, and it has happened. That is making it possible to drive the remote working hubs and strategies referenced by the Minister. We are giving people the choice or the option to work at home or to work rurally, whether in a hub or not. It is about giving people the option or the choice. That is how we drive forward rural Ireland and protect it for many years into the future. If you drive around this country, you can see the difference or transformation in many parts of rural Ireland since 2011 or 2012. I remember having debates here on the national planning framework around Project Ireland 2040, and on whether it would happen and if we were going to close down rural Ireland. We were absolutely not going to do that. The complete opposite has happened. Rural Ireland is thriving, with population growth, employment growth and opportunities. The Minister has stated that there are many other areas that we want to enhance. There is ongoing work to be able to build on that, but we have to be honest with ourselves. Rural Ireland is in a very strong position. There are still pockets of it that we want to step into and do more work with. We want to work with the local groups to make it happen. That is what is being achieved by the Minister through Our Rural Future and through everybody working together to make it happen.

I want to compliment the work that is going on right across all the agencies. Our education and training boards, ETBs, local enterprise offices, Enterprise Ireland, regional skills fora, Intreo offices and all the different bodies are all coming together to enhance the work that is being driven by the Minister. I commend the engagement that is taking place to make it happen. You can really see it when you go into the co-working hubs and the network of hubs that has been developed. The target was 450, but we are nearly over the target with the way we have been driving it over the last few years. Close to 350 hubs are already connected and are working together through the connected hub space. What an achievement and opportunity that is. All those hub spaces are being developed. They are enhancing and adding to the services and delivering more opportunities. That means more job creation, more start-ups and more companies being established in rural Ireland.

I want to conclude on a point that was touched on by the Minister. We have been talking about protecting rural Ireland and protecting jobs. In my area, Tara Mines is based in the urban centre of Navan but it covers a rural area. Many people who work there come from rural Meath and beyond the boundaries of the county. It is really important that right across the Government we do what we can to protect and safeguard those jobs. My heart goes out to the 650 people directly employed by Tara Mines and their families. They are my neighbours and friends who I grew up with for years. On top of that, a few thousand jobs are also affected in other SMEs and rural and urban based companies feeding into the Tara Mines operation to make it happen and make it viable. That is a similar story right throughout rural Ireland. There are large companies that are supported by many smaller companies. I am delighted that the Minister met me yesterday to discuss supports and options for getting in there straight away. Our social protection team is available today to work with management and the HR team in Tara Mines, with the unions and with individual employees, who are in a very concerning position when one looks at the months ahead. The Department has stepped up already to put in place that additional service to make it easier for people to access their entitlements and the services they need.

We have also seen our ETBs stepping in immediately, telling workers that they are there to use any downtime for upskilling and targeting different areas and to work with everybody. They are complementing the work of Enterprise Ireland. We want to keep the apprenticeships there going and keep the apprentices in jobs. We want to make sure that this temporary closure is exactly that, and is temporary. We must get the mine back up and running at full production very quickly. Most of us are aware, and certainly from talking to management last night, I know that there is a very secure long-term future for Tara Mines under the management of Boliden if we all work together and play our part. A big aspect of that is finding a low-cost green energy solution. A similar comment could be made right throughout rural Ireland. We can achieve that by working together. I thank the Ministers, Deputy Humphreys and Coveney, for their speedy reaction to the news. We must commit to working with Tara Mines and all the employees and their families in the weeks and months ahead to make sure that this has a short-term impact and that we can protect their future and that of the county by protecting the mine.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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While the Deputy is thanking people, I thank him for his co-operation with me and the members of my group in his time as Minister of State. Fíor fáilte go dtí an slua san gailéaraí from Tiobraid Árran active retirement, with Councillor Siobhán Ambrose. Céad míle fáilte riomh.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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I do not come from Aghabog. I come from a place that is quite different from Aghabog. I am encouraged by the progress of the club.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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Is it a boggy place?

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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An Tóchar would have been the causeway through the bog once upon a time.

I am encouraged by Aghabog's progress. As a next step, perhaps we can stick in hurling with any teacher with the hands for it and they can emulate their county heroes who did so well last weekend. In the community I come from in Togher on the south side of Cork city, we would have been a rural community until a few decades ago. My work is with rural communities in my constituency in Ballygarvan, Ballinahassig, Tracton, Raffeen and places like that. Indeed, as Deputy Sherlock might be know, there are rural parts of Togher, such as Spur Hill, Sexton’s Lane, Lehenaghmore and so on.

I listened with interest to the Minister’s very entertaining contribution. It reminded me somewhat of the Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan who told the British people that in lots of ways they had never had it so good. On the one hand, we have that type of comment from the Government. I suspect that in a while we will hear something very different from other Deputies. The truth of the picture in rural Ireland is complex and quite different. To some extent, there has been an element of papering over the cracks by those in government who have contributed to the debate. Good work is going on. There are positive things happening in rural Ireland but there are also some profound challenges. Of that there is no doubt. We make a mistake, and I know that the Minister understands this, by treating rural Ireland as a monolith or something that faces the same challenges throughout. Rural communities from the top to the bottom of Ireland are very different and diverse and have very diverse needs.

The Our Rural Future strategy has made some welcome progress with the establishment of remote working hubs in many areas and increased supports for addressing vacancy in dereliction. The strategy makes little reference, however, or no reference in some instances, to some of the greatest challenges to people who are looking to stay in rural Ireland or to move back, or move for the first time, to rural Ireland in affordable housing, childcare and access to reliable public transport. While these issues are not unique to rural Ireland, they are magnified due to decades of underinvestment and neglect. Rural communities can be thriving and vibrant places to live in, but that requires delivery on key issues which matter to people living in those communities.

The Minister referred to population. It is true that the population of rural Ireland has not been so great in many decades. Again, the picture is somewhat more complicated. The population growth is slower than it is in urban areas. That is not a problem that is unique to Ireland and is probably replicated in any developed country but there are places where significant depopulation continues to happen. In north and west Mayo, in west Galway, in large parts of west and south Donegal, in parts of the Acting Chair’s constituency of Tipperary South and in south Kerry, the level of depopulation is substantial, with a more than 10% reduction in the numbers living in some of those communities. That may be the position in a minority of cases. However, there is a substantial enough number of communities where the population is decreasing. The fact that the population of rural Ireland as a whole is increasing does not in any way undermine the fact that for many communities, the challenges are as severe as ever, and those communities feel that they are fighting for the very future of their communities still at this stage.

There must be a commitment to implementing rural-proofing mechanisms. This is something which Sinn Féin has introduced legislation on in the Dáil which would require Departments and State bodies to rural-proof their policies.

In the North, we have pushed for the needs of people living in rural areas. This features prominently within Government policy there through the Rural Needs Act (Northern Ireland) 2016. Establishing mechanisms that ensure due regard for the needs of rural areas is a crucial part of the policy development and implementation.

Our Rural Future sets out the aim of developing a rural-proofing too. The external consultation and guidelines were published just this year despite the strategy being in place for two years. These guidelines are useful, but it is important that they are put in place on a cross-departmental basis.

As I have already indicated, in the course of the past century the balance of the population in this State has shifted. There has been a significant growth in the population imbalance since the 1960s in particular. If one goes back to the first couple of Dáileanna, the proportion of Dublin and urban Deputies as opposed to the rural ones, even though there were only 120 or 130 Members of the House, was a very different from what we have now. That reflects the fact that this was a very different country as regards the urban-rural balance.

This has given rise to significant challenges for many communities. I have already touched on the fact that not all rural communities are the same. There is a significant difference even within a county between a farming community in the Golden Vale or up in the Galtee Mountains and a Gaeltacht community in Connemara, an island community on Inishbofin, a place like Aghabog or places in rural Border communities. Rural communities are not monolithic or identical. To some extent, we can look at progress in strong villages or the rural areas surrounding them and it can mask some of the challenges that some of the more remote areas face. I will not name any of them. However, the Minister named five or six places with populations of more than 5,000 and two with populations in excess of 20,000. While those places serve rural communities, they are not really the heart of what we are talking about and they are not the most challenged.

Some of the biggest challenges we face relate to services. Perhaps the number one challenge is the pressure on GP services. There is also the pressure on childcare services. When we consider the loss of population in the communities to which I refer, we can see that local shops, pubs and schools are being closed as a result. The closing of schools can be the most emotive issue of all. As the demographic bulge moves through into secondary school, we will potentially see pressure on our schools again. The latter is something we need to safeguard against. The population bulge we saw in the past ten years protected rural schools. We need to look at that again to ensure that rural schools continue to be protected.

In many ways, the community and voluntary sector is often at its strongest in rural communities and we see the whole community pull together and the local community development committees facilitated much good work. There are causes of optimism as well as pessimism on the points made around remote work.

I believe I am close to being out of time. I am not the best at keeping an eye on the clock or doing the maths. My final point relates to childcare and public transport, both of which are crucial. We should be aware that this is not just an Irish problem. There are elements that are particular to Ireland, but this is a global problem. This is the shift in population, and we need to look at the best international exemplars in order to ensure that rural communities thrive, are sustained and have a vibrant future.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister for her statement. I listened to her and her colleagues. One thing that I certainly would not agree with is the idea put forward by the Minister of State, Deputy Heydon, to the effect that nobody is talking about the death of rural Ireland anymore. I certainly would not go as far as to say that. A prime example of in this regard is the Macra protest whereby young people walked 79 km from Athy to Dublin just a few weeks ago. They did not do that for the good of their health. They did it to raise awareness of the very serious challenges that are facing those of us, our generation and the generation behind us, who want to live in rural communities and who would live nowhere else. This is also to do with the fact that, in some instances, that is very much under threat. That is the reality.

There are many positives. I welcomed Our Rural Future. There are many things in it that are making a difference every day. I welcome all of that, but there are challenges that fall outside the Minister’s remit. CLÁR, the rural support scheme, RSS, and many other schemes and grants are extremely important, but the challenges beyond those that are faced by people who live in rural communities day in and day out relate to housing, access to public services, transport and broadband. There is so much more than just those. That is why there is a need for a cross-party, cross-departmental approach in respect of this matter. I would like to see a cross-party approach being taken a great deal more because there is not a single person in this House who does not want to see rural Ireland thrive, develop and be sustained. That is what we all want to see.

There are issues, however. The planning guidelines are years overdue. We have been waiting a long time for them. They are badly needed if we want to support people to live in the first instance in a rural community. Then, after that, it is about building the resources and the services to ensure that we can sustain those communities. This involves access to public services, banks and financial services, health services and everything that is necessary in the context of building and sustaining communities. A number challenges exist in the context of Our Rural Future. One such challenge relates to identifying State-owned properties in rural towns and villages that could potentially be used for community purposes. That is a very important measure. I would love to know how many of those properties have been identified and the number in respect of which there has been progress. That is the kind of matter in respect of which we need to see progress, particularly as so many of our rural towns have not recovered since the 2008 crash and remain under significant pressure.

How many town centre first officers have been recruited across our local authorities. It is a mark of failure that we still do not have a rural-proofing mechanism in place two years-plus after the emergence of Our Rural Future. That is something on which work has been in train for some time.

We really need to see progress on that because there is particular frustration - I say this as someone from the west of Ireland - that people in Dublin who do not understand the communities and where they are at as regards investment and infrastructure are making decisions for people west of the Shannon. The rural proofing mechanism is important and we are still waiting for it.

Likewise, with respect to Our Rural Future: Rural Development Policy 2021-2025, there are some other good initiatives such as looking for additional services for the post office network. Especially now, as banks are pulling out of communities, I would like to see progress on that. Our post offices can do more and they and credit unions are willing and able to do more. I know the Minister has an interest in credit unions. It would be great to see progress on access to more financial services in our rural communities.

I have raised this last issue with the Minister numerous times. If someone is questioning where we are with respect to the challenges in rural Ireland, the Minister does not need to listen to my party or anyone on the outside. The European Commission has twice downgraded the west and north west. Alarm bells should be ringing. We are in serious trouble west of the Shannon when it comes to decades of under-investment and lack of investment in infrastructure that is needed to get us to where we need to be. We are now the only region in Ireland that is no longer seen as developed. That is a crisis beyond words.

The western rail corridor is a prime example of infrastructure that should be progressed by the Government to link Sligo to Limerick. It is an investment that would have huge benefits. The Minister, Deputy Ryan, has said time and again that he is waiting for the All Island Strategic Rail Review. We have heard that many times. We did not have to wait for the rail review to put more than €20 billion into infrastructure and transport in Dublin. Why do we have to wait in the west of Ireland? We should not have to wait. That is why people get extremely frustrated and annoyed. They see the discrimination that exists. We have a city that is going in one direction and rural communities in the west of Ireland going in the altogether wrong direction. We need to see investment in infrastructure and to build back up so we have balanced regional development once and for all. That is critical.

Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister was in my home town, Callan, a few years ago on a day with similar weather to what we are having today. Some good projects, such as the one she was there for that day, are happening in some of our towns and villages. That is welcome but, as my colleagues said, there are still outstanding issues. I apologise in advance to anyone who has heard me talk about this before. The train is one of the things that really bothers me about transport in the constituency of Carlow-Kilkenny. We have the same train timetable since I was in college, which I hate to admit was 20 years ago. The last train leaves Dublin for Kilkenny at 6.35 p.m. I have raised this matter here before because we encourage people to use public transport. I would love to be able to use public transport, but unfortunately it is not an option for me or any of my constituency colleagues. They are in the same situation. It not only affects us, but everyone in the area.

We recently got a new Local Link bus to Carlow town which was welcome but unfortunately it does not serve the villages outside the town. It is a missed opportunity for connectivity and encouraging people to use public transport. A huge number of people, particularly in the housing environment we are in at the moment, would love to live in rural Ireland. They might originally be from there or be looking to relocate but it is not an option if there is no transport. That is something we need to get to grips with properly in our rural towns and villages.

The other issue is broadband. It is an issue that comes up consistently. We have unusual situations, such as a situation in Callan where part of the town has been serviced well with broadband but two or three streets seem to have been totally excluded. The residents have been told they have to wait another year or two. That affects people who are potentially trying to work from home. It is great that opportunity is available to so many people now, but it is not realistic if they cannot access broadband.

I will also mention child poverty in rural communities. The Children's Rights Alliance launched its Child Poverty Monitor last week, which showed that a basket of healthy groceries for a family living in a rural area was €169 compared to €147 in an urban area. We know that food poverty is a big issue and it affects rural areas differently. I hope the child poverty unit we heard about in the Department of the Taoiseach will examine the rural-urban divide for children living in rural areas. However, I am concerned that it was announced in December. It is June now and we have not heard much about what is happening with that.

As I said earlier, one of the most common issues businesses contact my office about is National Broadband Ireland, NBI. I have come across cases of broadband being laid along the road in front of a rural business but for some reason properties are left out and it is frustrating.

I will briefly mention a good initiative being rolled out by the Kilkenny LEADER partnership. We should look at this type of model to see whether it can be replicated in other towns and villages. It is called the Blue Towns Community Broadband Networks. It was developed as a pilot programme in the village of Piltown in south Kilkenny where the community developed an award-winning fibre to premises broadband network. It is community owned, which means that any funds generated go back into the community. It provides high capacity broadband for the community and has transformed life. People are able to study and work from home in the area and any benefits are coming back to the community. Initiatives like this one need to be encouraged and rolled out to other villages and towns. Some change is happening but a lot of progress still needs to be made.

We must also remember the role of the GP in rural Ireland. I met some GPs recently from a rural community who are doing excellent work in their area. Often they offer more than just a GP service. They are the first port of call for many issues people experience. We must remember their place in rural communities and that they run small rural businesses.

Many people from rural Ireland who are listening to this debate feel an awful lot more needs to be done, especially around transport, broadband and elements of poverty that are different than in urban areas.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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What I will say will be not be a surprise to the Minister. I thank her for her statement. Many of the things I will outline cut across into the responsibility of other Departments. Like the Minister, I served on a county council, Mayo County Council. The Minister served on her county council. I always used to make the point that we need to get our core stuff right. We need to get the bread and butter issues right and we are not getting them right. I will set it in context because it is often said that Sinn Féín is saying something or running down rural Ireland. I will give two sets of statistics that prove the Government is not getting things right in rural Ireland. The first is the data recently released by the EU as part of the EU regional competitiveness index which shows the severity of the infrastructure deficit in the west and north west. Of the 234 designated regions across the whole EU, the north-west region of Ireland ranks 218th for infrastructure. That places the region in the bottom 7%, alongside some of the poorest regions in the EU. That is not Sinn Féin saying it. Those are credible statistics that have been analysed.

According to the Central Statistics Office, CSO, and we often go by CSO figures, the income gap between the northern and western regions and the State average has progressively widened in the past decade with a difference in disposable income per person increasing from slightly more than €1,400 in 2011 - when Fine Gael came into Government - to almost €4,000 in 2021. That is extremely worrying. Ministers say we have nothing to complain about. I want us to look at this together, as people who care about rural Ireland. I know the Minister does. She spoke about her area and I am glad that it can field football teams and so forth. However, we counted 17 young people who emigrated to Australia from the villages around me in recent times. It is happening. We cannot ignore this.

I will raise another issue that is not directly related. Everyone is entitled to water. I know the Minister will agree. It is one of the most basic things. Irish Water is not doing its job on group water schemes, especially those with debt. We requested that 14 group water schemes that have debt be taken over.

Debt has been incurred where there have been huge leaks and so on, so that debt is there and it is not going anywhere. I want the Minister and her Department to ask Irish Water about this or to make a demand on it.

I know Irish Water is a private company that is limited by shares, which I cannot fathom, but can the Minister instruct it or get the relevant Minister to instruct it to look at the rural water schemes to ensure that people in rural Ireland have water? I mention a scheme that has looked to be taken over for months and years, Pullathomas water scheme. The people in that area have no water. Irish Water states it is not its responsibility because it is a private body and Mayo County Council states it not its problem or issue. I commend Mayo County Council on the good work it has done but it states it is not its issue because it is up to Irish Water. It comes back to volunteers and, as I told Irish Water would happen, the volunteers on the scheme have all resigned. Yet they are being told by Government they are still responsible, so they are not allowed to resign as they are responsible for their neighbours' water. We must provide simple things like water, roads and flood relief as a matter of human rights. We are waiting on the Crossmolina flood relief scheme for months and years. We have been waiting for months for the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform to sign off on it to let that flood relief scheme go ahead.

Some of my colleagues talked about other things like the western rail corridor and the infrastructure we need. It is quite alarming when we have the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, going down to Sligo to say the N17 Knock to Collooney scheme has no funding available. That is completely contradictory to what the Minister is saying about the funding being there. One Minister is telling one story and the next Minister is saying something completely contradictory. The people in rural Ireland deserve more than this. I will not even mention the pyrite scheme and the people who have a deficit of €116,000 in trying to avail of the scheme; the people who are locked out of this as it is. I ask the Minister that there be collective responsibility across Government for the future of rural Ireland.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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I welcome the Minister's speech. I am reminded of Patrick Kavanagh when he said:

Parochialism and provincialism are direct opposites. A provincial is always trying to live by other people's loves, but a parochial is self-sufficient.

There is something in the Minister's theme today when she speaks about the parish coming together, identifying projects and then relying on the State, the Government and the Department to animate those projects and bring them to fruition. I am glad to hear that the Minister has been getting out of her Department and travelling the country to see the good works that are taking place. That is to her credit.

In latter years one senses that there is a positivity in parishes throughout the land where they are identifying projects and the funding is flowing. That has to be acknowledged. If we are talking about Our Rural Future and the rural economy, the bread and butter issues are still the ones that effect people in their day to day lives. I look at simple things like access to GP and out-of-hours services. In many of the communities I represent we have the characteristic provincial or market town surrounded by a rural hinterland, where before there was a strong rural agricultural community feeding into a creamery-like structure. What I am coming across is the lack of inward investment in an industrial policy that seeks to renew some of those industries that sustained communities, like in the town of Mallow.

I will be accused of being parochial here but I do not care because it is the town from which I hail. I will speak about the loss of Irish Sugar, for instance, which was once a stalwart and part of the backbone of Irish industrial policy, whereupon it was sold to Greencore and privatised. We lost the sugar industry and now the Greencore site in Mallow is up for sale. I am calling on the State to retake or purchase that site and bring it back into State ownership to try to animate some sort of industrial policy that will serve towns like Mallow and its rural hinterland to create jobs that will bolt on to that policy that is part of that rural future the Minister talks about. I see no reason, at a time when there is much deliberation about energy policy, you could not use a site like the Greencore site at Mallow as a key reference point for alternative energy creation, for instance.

If I am talking about industrial policy, we need to ensure that people are working and enjoying these new projects, which in the main are public realm projects which sustain a relatively small number of jobs but provide untold benefit to our communities in their usage. We want people to live in rural Ireland but there is an impediment if people who have lived there intergenerationally or who are new there feel there is a lack of access to the services which are more readily available in larger towns. These include GP services and out-of-hours services and this acts as a blockage to that inward investment. We should not ignore the fact that at this point in time, no matter where you go in Ireland, there is a serious impediment to being able to access out-of-hours services for GPs. That is a major impediment to services in hospitals like Cork University Hospital. More and more people, when they get sick, are inclined to go to an accident and emergency department in the likes of Cork University Hospital because they cannot get access to the out-of-hours services. You cannot blame GPs or GP practices for this. The shortage of GPs in rural areas is having untold consequences and it is delaying the ability of people to get access to the services, which is something the Government needs to grapple with. It is not necessarily a matter for this Department but it is an issue we have to address if we are going to be realistic about ensuring that people have that enhanced quality of life, particularly in the towns and villages I represent in north and east Cork.

I acknowledge the role of the Minister in the building acquisition measure and I spoke with her about this last night. This is the proactive policy by Government in tackling dereliction in our towns and villages throughout the country. It has to be acknowledged that there has been some measure of success in the building acquisition measure and new money has been announced for that purpose. That has to be acknowledged and the Government is serious about this issue.

As we approach the next round of budgetary deliberations, where line Departments are interfacing with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, given that there is a demand for this scheme, if that could be enhanced further and if new moneys could be found for it, that would have a massive impact on towns and villages throughout the country. I note that my home town of Mallow has gaps in it, and it is the same in every single town throughout the country. There is one notable example in the town of Mallow called the Central Hotel. It has been derelict for a good number of years and it is under private ownership. If the person or persons who own that facility were willing to engage with the local authority and deploy the building acquisition measure to purchase a property like that, it would have a massive and positive impact on the town of Mallow.

4 o’clock

I speak for many towns and villages when I give that example to the House. I reiterate that the building acquisition measure, which I think has a budget of about €13 million so far, has been very successful and well subscribed. We could do more on schemes like that.

I also acknowledge that the local link transport services in my area have been phenomenally successful. I meet people who use those services at Mallow railway station on a Tuesday where the local link bus comes in. So many students use the service from outlying areas and older people also use it especially because it allows them to come into towns like Mallow, Fermoy and Mitchelstown. It has really benefitted people. There is a practical reason why people get the bus but now there is also a social reason. It gets people out of the house and helps people to interact and do the normal things that people want to do.

I will make one reference to footpaths. It is a hardy perennial for all of us and a bread-and-butter issue. I acknowledge there is an active travel measure now but if the fund is under utilised then there is no reason why local authorities could not use the fund to enhance further the public realm and footpaths in towns and villages throughout the country. Where funds are not spent in a given year, they should be redeployed. I understand it is an active-travel measure but if you are walking down the main street of your town and want to get from A to B, then you are actively walking and the public realm in towns and villages is important. I spoke to an area engineer in my area recently who told me he only had enough money left in his budget to do 60 m of footpaths. They are bread-and-butter issues but they are the issues that people talk about. If we can get the basics right on issues like that then we would be doing a good day’s work.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am delighted to contribute to this debate on the impact of the Government’s five-year policy for rural Ireland. In the limited time I have I will touch on some aspects of the plan. It is a cross-government plan and I commend the work of the Minister, Deputy Humphreys.

I am travelling the country to all the local authorities at the moment so I am seeing first-hand what is happening on the ground. First, I will mention the Croí Cónaithe scheme. We are very proud of the scheme. As of today, we have received 2,480 applications which is significant. We had an initial target of 2,500 and we will significantly beat that. Some 890 have been approved. I want that scheme to be a real success. It is very straightforward: it offers €50,000 if a house was built prior to 2007 and was vacant for two years. It offers an additional €20,000 or €70,000 if it is deemed derelict and then there are SEAI grants on top of that. Further, it is important to remember that over-the-shop units also apply. If someone has a building where there is a shop operating on the ground floor but they can prove that overhead has been vacant for more than two years, then they qualify for the €50,000. They do not qualify for the €70,000 because it is not derelict because there is activity on the ground floor. This is a very straightforward scheme. It covers every square inch of the Republic: rural, urban, towns and cities. It is very simple: the property must be built prior to 2007 and vacant for more than two years. Furthermore, it now applies to rental properties too. There are a couple of provisos. First, you can only qualify for either scheme, rental or owner occupier, once. If I buy a house I can live in it under the Croí Cónaithe scheme. I can equally buy another house and do it up but that is it. I cannot do up two houses for rental and cannot do up two houses to live in them. It is a very fair and straightforward scheme and I want to promote it.

The town centre first scheme is in partnership with the Department of Rural and Community Development. In every county, one town is designated in the first phase. They must have plans in by 30 June which is only a short time away. We want to see those plans submitted and for them to be ambitious and to be rolled out. The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, has appointed regeneration officers in each of those towns to deal with town centre first and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has appointed vacant homes officers. We want to encourage anyone who has a house that they feel would qualify under the Croí Cónaithe scheme to contact their local authority and look to apply.

There was mention of rural planning guidelines earlier. We are looking at it but we should remember that rural houses are still being built. In the last year, just less than 7,000 were built in 2022 and just less than 7,500 the previous year. I take the point about wanting people to return to live in their rural parishes. That is something that we are very conscious of in the Department. I commend the scheme.

The most important thing is that we want rural Ireland to thrive. Deputy Sherlock spoke about rural communities coming together. They are the lifeblood. The town centre first scheme is centred on that. I want to encourage community groups in the towns and villages to come together and look at buildings which they want to fund through the Croí Cónaithe scheme. The Deputy is correct that local authorities are purchasing units in various areas. It is available under the Minister’s rural regeneration fund and is something we want to look at too.

There is a lot done and a bit more to do. Rural Ireland is very much the lifeblood of this Government.

Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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Our Rural Future is a cross-government plan and a whole-of-government approach. It can be quite frustrating when we see reports, recommendations and reviews talking about the need for better interdepartmental working and a whole-of-government approach. It seems to be a standard criticism and recommendation of many reports.

I will focus on some of the justice issues which are relevant here. I appreciate that the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, was only Minister for Justice for a very brief period but nevertheless I look at things such as the local community safety partnerships. The policy highlights the pilot of the local community safety partnership in Longford. This has proved positive but we seem to be doing the perennial thing in this country of piloting interventions instead of actually investing in them. If we want people to live in rural Ireland and be the thriving vibrant, lived-in Ireland that the policy talks about then we need to fund things such as the local community safety partnerships. We cannot rely on pilots; we need to roll them out more. The number of gardaí has also been a major problem. As others have noted, there have been plenty of problems around services in rural Ireland and it is important to highlight that we need to step up and do more around adequate numbers of gardaí.

We not only need to keep people safe but they need to feel safe in order to have a thriving rural Ireland. But we also need to keep the land and environment in which people live safe so that they can have that life there. It is important to talk about how nature and farming can thrive together and how farmers can benefit from this. The agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, has been very successful in this. A commitment to a just transition has also been very successful. However, there is frustration sometimes that despite the lofty words here, particularly during the discussions on biodiversity loss, we have seen the same parties do the opposite in Europe around the nature restoration law.

It is the exact opposite in Europe when it comes to the nature restoration law. If we want that thriving, vibrant, lived-in rural Ireland, we need to ensure a future, not just for our people to keep them safe but to keep the land and the environment safe too.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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There is a worrying trend in this House to see embracing sustainability and the climate challenge as a conspiracy somehow hatched in Dublin against the future of rural Ireland. The truth is exactly the opposite. It is those who seek to cling to practices and institutions that do not have a future who will lead their communities in the wrong direction.

What I like about the vision for rural Ireland pioneered by the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, is that it is taking the courage to portray the path to a resilient future for rural Ireland as one that embraces climate change and environmental sustainability. The truth is that it is those new technologies that are genuinely opening up the chance of rural prosperity. The new drivers of policy for future sustainability are far more dispersing of economic activity than those they have replaced. Broadband, for example, has now closed the digital divide between rural and urban communities as a result of the Government's decision. The vast majority of renewables will be in dispersed locations. The circular economy is going back to the fundamental principles that rural communities are built upon. For the vast majority of retrofitting, 70% of those on oil or solid fuels are in rural Ireland versus only 10% in Dublin. Retrofitting will be a rural bonanza. Just transition will focus on how we help communities to change.

The missing link in my view is carbon farming. We have not articulated how we are going to deliver carbon farming in a meaningful way that allows people to see a future for them. That is what has caused a reluctance to move. The truth is if we cannot bring rural communities with us in this transformation, we will fail and all of us will suffer the consequences. I believe we need to see new vigour put into some of the areas such as remote health, retrofitting, just transition and carbon farming, but we also need to see Government negotiating with rural leaders around the rewards that will be in place that make the transition of agriculture and land use a sustainable and bright future for them. We have yet to seriously engage in that process. I congratulate the Minister on the work she has done. I urge her to do more in a wider range of areas.

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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I concur with what Deputy Bruton said about the rural divide in this House or that people portray it as a rural divide. I wish to put on the record that since 2020 up to 2023, more than €40 million has been delivered to my constituency from the Minister, Deputy Humphreys', Department. That is in every constituency and every county and town and village in this country. Listening to some of the people on the opposite side of the Chamber, you would swear rural Ireland was on its knees with nothing happening, no investment or nothing whereas it is quite the opposite.

I want to focus on our small villages throughout the country that are such an important hub and part of the fabric of rural Ireland and our communities. I know the Minister of State and his Department are very much part and parcel of the town and village renewal scheme. That has done so much good in rural villages right over recent years. Communities can avail of up to €100,000. They would sell a lot of raffle tickets to get in €100,000. The goodwill that brings into a rural community is unbelievable. It gets a whole community together. It gets people talking and working together. That is what rural Ireland is all about and that is important.

I will impress upon the Minister of State one issue. His Department is doing so much good work through the local authorities, but I really believe he should have more roadshows coming out of his Department to sell what the Department has been doing and the investment into rural Ireland, and tell people and communities what is available in grant aid and what can be drawn down for their communities through the local authorities. Never did I think since being a Member of this House for more than 21 years - heading on for 22 years - that I would have seen such money being invested in rural Ireland. The amount of money that is being invested is phenomenal. However, I do want to harp on about the town and village renewal schemes. The Minister of State might perhaps consider, in conjunction with the local authorities, having information evenings for different counties, maybe as a pilot programme, to show what is available to bring communities and people together. That is what rural Ireland is all about.

Deputy Sherlock spoke about dereliction and derelict buildings. That is something I feel very strongly about. There are a huge number of rural derelict buildings for different reasons. They could be above shops in rural Ireland, for example. I know there are different funding models now to draw down through the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

I congratulate the Minister of State and his Department. I want to touch on the rural regeneration development fund and the money he has given to New Ross. I asked the Minister of State to come down and turn the sod on that. I ask him again to consider coming to New Ross to turn the sod and show the commitment from his Department.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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We will now go to Deputy Pa Daly who is sharing time with Deputy Mairéad Farrell.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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I thought it appropriate to begin with a quote from the Government's website with regard to Our Rural Future: Rural Development Policy 2021-2025. It states:

While the term "rural Ireland" is widely used, there are many different perceptions of what "rural Ireland" means. The fact is that rural areas are not identical and every town, village and parish differs considerably in terms of its individual strengths, needs and possibilities.

That is correct. The experiences of somebody living, for example, in an estate in Tralee, a house in Kenmare or a house around the Ring of Kerry can be very different. There are many things that unite them, however, and that is the feeling of being left behind, poor access to healthcare and the labour market, particularly dental services and GP services, and an increasing disenfranchisement and dissatisfaction with the Government. If we look at some of the LEADER funding, which is the bedrock that massively supports rural communities in rural social schemes and community employment, CE, schemes, between 2014 and 2020, there was €10.2 million, which is around €1.7 million per year, yet for 2023 to 2027, it is €8.1 million, which works out at approximately €1.6 million. Factor in inflation and it is a decrease for those essential services.

The strategy promises much in areas with priorities including optimising digital connectivity, supporting employment and careers in rural areas, revitalising towns and villages, enhancing participation, leadership and resilience and supporting carbon neutrality. However, are the rural communities going to see much of a return in these areas? Rural broadband connectivity, for example, in County Kerry is still very patchy. Many areas do not have a clear timeline for when they will be connected. Given that working from home requires good service and provision for this is uncertain, many of those who would like to move back home to their county are unable to do so. It is hard to detect much progress in the attempt at revitalising towns and villages. Dereliction of commercial units is still very high in Tralee town. A number of retail units are still closing and there are little signs of recovery. Public bodies and county councils need to step up to the plate. In the programme for Government, for example, we have the Town Centre First plan, but when the council talks about a new building, it is extending that building at the edge of town rather than pushing services into the town centres and getting people working there. All the surveys about dereliction that were taken in England, for example, have shown that to revitalise town centres, we need to have people living there and, more importantly, people working there.

Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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Bhí an ceart ar fad ag mo chomhghleacaí, an Teachta Daly, nuair a dúirt sé go bhfuil chuile cheantar tuaithe difriúil. I mo dháilcheantar féin, is é ceann de na ceantair is iargúlta ann ná ceantar Gaeltachta. Tugaim rud amháin faoi deara sa Seomra nuair a labhraím i nGaeilge go minic, is é sin, go mbím orm é a rá arís i mBéarla. Is ceantar iargúlta é seo i mo dháilcheantar agus áit a labhraíonn formhór na ndaoine Gaeilge agus a mbíonn daoine ag obair trí Ghaeilge agus ag caitheamh a saol trí Ghaeilge. Caithfimid breathnú air sin. Tá na cluaisíní ar fáil agus is féidir le daoine éisteacht leis an méid atá á rá i nGaeilge, i mBéarla, má theastaíonn sé sin uathu. Is rud tábhachtach é. Má táimid ag caint faoi thábhacht cheantair tuaithe, tá ceantair Ghaeltachta san áireamh ansin.

Ar ndóigh, teastaíonn infheistíocht.

Is é ceann de na rudaí is deacra do dhaoine ná an t-infreastruchtúr. Nuair atá an aimsir go hálainn, mar atá sé faoi láthair, tá chuile dhuine ag iarraidh a bheith ina gcónaí i gConamara mar gheall go bhfuil na tránna chomh hálainn agus teastaíonn an t-infreastruchtúr caoi do na daoine atá ag iarraidh a bheith ina gcónaí agus teaghlach a thógáil ann. Teastaíonn infheistíocht sna bóithre, droichid agus céanna. Tá sé seo luaite agam go rímhinic leis an Aire mar tá impleachtaí aige sin ar fhostaíocht, ar ghnólachtaí a lonnú ann agus ar an turas chuig an obair sa chathair más gá.

Chomh maith leis sin, caithfimid breathnú ar chúrsaí séarachais. Tá a fhios agam go dtuigeann an tAire na deacrachtaí pleanála. Tá sé sin luaite sa tuairisc a d’fhoilsigh sí an tseachtain seo caite, ach caithfimid breathnú ar chúrsaí séarachais ionas go mbeidh daoine in ann cur isteach i gcomhair pleanála agus nach mbeidh sé ina bhac arís agus arís eile.

We need to be realistic when we talk about rural Ireland. The Irish language is spoken in my constituency in one of the most iargúlta and rural areas of Connemara. If we want to be serious about representing all places, we should also be ensuring this is a bilingual Chamber. I am not saying that to give out and people obviously have different levels of Irish, but we need to ensure people have the ability to listen to what is being said in Irish there and then. That is important.

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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The Government's rural development policy looks good on paper. The Minister has already referred to several success stories, but in some cases those success stories are divorced from the reality. In many towns and villages across west Cork and Ireland, community after community has to fight and fundraise for basic services. In my constituency, villages such as Drimoleague and Kealkill are being proactive in seeking infrastructure to enable children to walk safely to school and older people to walk to the pub or post office. This is basic stuff for which nobody should have to spend years fighting and campaigning.

Family resource centres are an invaluable amenity. They are one-stop shops for many vulnerable families, individuals and groups. However, the centres in towns such as Bandon and Skibbereen have been searching for permanent locations for years now and need proper Government funding. Some of those centres had to move five times in the space of approximately two years. Other towns and villages have permanent family resource centres in HSE-owned buildings. Places across Cork South-West will be waiting years for broadband despite Government promises. Even more frustrating is the case in Riverstick where one estate does not have a connection when the rest of the village does. Bandon, which is a big town with a population that is growing all the time, only has a playground due to the incredible local campaign of a group of parents and the support of the community who raised the money. The same is true for Bantry and Innishannon. Dunmanway is the only town in west Cork with a public swimming pool. As a result, children are left on waiting lists for years for swimming classes. The list goes on and on.

The State has an obligation to provide these services. It is the least people should expect. A sustainable society requires balanced regional development and this needs to be a social and economic priority. Successive governments have located a disproportionate amount of our health, education and cultural institutions in the more built-up areas. This drives a model of development that works against the kind of regional balance required for Ireland to thrive as a whole. While our cities suffer from a shortage of housing and unaffordable rents, many people who would love the opportunity to move or return to rural areas cannot do so.

The Social Democrats prioritise the public provision of services and supports that make life affordable and allow people to participate fully in the society they live in, including in rural areas. That is not only about health and social care but everyday facilities, such as parks, sports facilities, cycle lanes, public toilets and community centres. These are social infrastructure that enrich and strengthen communities. We are a long way from having all our towns and villages supported by appropriate facilities. The rural policy looks great on paper but it in no way reflects the reality of life in rural Ireland at the moment.

There are several major issues that need to be addressed to help implement these plans. There is a clear need for joined-up thinking. The rural policy intersects with many other areas and Departments, but too often these intersections are absent in practice. For example, the document talks about supporting tourism in rural areas and SME growth, which is obviously important for many rural areas, but there is very little awareness of the challenges faced by businesses in the hospitality sector and other SMEs. There is some acknowledgement of the rise in operating costs in the context of the policy, but there is nothing about what is being done to address these costs. Unjustifiable and continually increasing insurance premiums are a major issue for small businesses. How does this policy interact with financial policy? Does the Minister for Finance understand this is a major challenge for tourism and hospitality and our creative and recreational sectors? The rural policy says all the right things about supporting these industries but what is being done to address the challenges they are facing?

Caravan parks, hotels and activity centres all face significant insurance costs, especially when compared with the UK and other European countries. Why are insurance companies allowed to charge people so much in Ireland?

Another operating cost is the transaction fees charged by commercial banks. A significant proportion of people pay by card now, as we have all seen happening, but every time you pay in a café or a small family business with a card, it costs them. The banks are imposing these charges on the hospitality sector but nothing is being done in response.

Fishing is another example. While the policy refers to the importance of fishing in rural communities, there is not enough focus on measures that do anything, especially for inshore fishing. I have repeatedly raised the challenges for the inshore fishing sector with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Significantly, there needs to be far greater investment in public marine infrastructure, as identified by the seafood task force. Those are basic things. We need small piers on our coast and offshore islands to support fishers locally. Slipways would be of assistance rather than having piers that drop off. Such measures help families stay in the area and help support the type of sustainable fishing we should be prioritising. However, there is insufficient annual investment to maintain public marine infrastructure, not to mention improving it, and both the rural policy and the recently published islands policy need to address this deficit. A ban on pairing in inshore areas would have a massive impact, but there does not seem to be a connection between this policy and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

The second major issue is the fundamental flaw at the centre of how public money is distributed. Schemes are put in place and communities must compete against each other to get basic public investment. Currently, the Department of Rural and Community Development has a scheme for the construction of new community centres. This is obviously great and welcome, but it will inevitably be oversubscribed. What happens to communities that are deemed not to be worthy of funding? Why are they less deserving? When will they get their community centres?

There is also an insistence on projects being shovel ready, which is a euphemism for the hours, days and weeks of effort and work put in by local volunteers and groups. Why is it so hard to get funding for community projects in Ireland? When funding is awarded, Ministers, Government Deputies and councillors scramble to announce it ahead of each other, sometimes with the implication they had an influence in the decision-making for things such as community centres. This perpetuates systems of clientelism and parish pump politics which make some public representatives look good while communities do all the work with no guarantee of success. The whole system needs to change. Funding should be awarded based on need. There should be rolling funding instruments with integrated supports. This policy should be underpinned by a multiyear implementation plan where communities can understand what funding will be available and can work towards it with the support of the Department and local authorities.

There are two particular examples in Cork South-West under this policy that are worth highlighting. Shannonvale, near Clonakilty, has been dealing with a wastewater issue for years. Untreated water is entering the Argideen river and the local park due to an old and overflowing tank. I have repeatedly raised this issue with Minister after Minister. Over a year ago, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, visited the site. He seemed to promise to fix the issue but nothing has happened. For too long, locals have had to put up with this. They have had to fight about it and raise the issue continually. Irish Water and the council have a solution which needs funding from the Government. It should be as simple as that. The river and park in Shannonvale should be at the heart of the village. The park is a tiny green space in the centre of the village and it used to be the heart of the community for festivals. It is next to the river where people used to swim. Instead, it is now dilapidated and overflowing with untreated wastewater. I will never forget during the pandemic when the travel limits were in place, the children in that area had nowhere to play and no green space. The Government's rural policy commits to investing in water and wastewater infrastructure to support the development of rural towns and villages. When will the people in places such as Shannonvale see the benefit of this? Will they have to fight against each other, rally and lobby, or how will it happen?

The other matter relates to a bus for young people in Beara. Since September, young people living in Beara, out on a peninsula, have been denied public transport to access education and day services in Bantry. A bus was provided, thanks only to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and Beara West Family Resource Centre, as well as personal donations - some from the people who are using the bus out of their disability allowance. The new 232 bus service was supposed to address their needs. It finally happened after a lot of work, but the young people and their families have identified several issues with it already which will not only impact them, but also people with reduced mobility. For example, there should be a bus stop closer to the hospital and St. Goban's Further Education and Training Centre. Under the current proposals, students and people going to the hospital will be dropped off at the square, a 20 minute walk away from the college. The situation is deeply frustrating for the students, who have been fighting since last summer for a proper bus service and, in many instances, missed educational programme days in their classes. The Government is aware of the issues, which I have brought up repeatedly in the Dáil and directly with the Minister for Transport and the Minister of State at the Department of Health with responsibility for disabilities. I cannot understand why this service was not developed in consultation with local people, in particular, the service users themselves. A strong theme in the rural policy is supporting communities to create their own future but there was no form of shared decision making or consultation in this important case, for example, and, I am sure, many more. The Local Link office is doing everything it can, but ultimately the National Transport Authority makes decisions on routes and timetables. The Minister must act to support more inclusive transport.

We are talking about the impacts of the Government's rural policy. There is a significant gap between this policy and what communities are experiencing. There needs to be a fundamental change to the way this policy is implemented if it is to be in any way successful.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I thank Deputy Cairns. In the next group, Deputy Dillon is sharing with Deputies Cahill and Griffin. I see Deputy O'Connor's name down here as well.

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle. Deputy O'Connor is not partaking. I am sharing time with Deputies Griffin and Cahill.

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate and highlight the exceptional work undertaken by the Government and the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, to revitalise rural Ireland and create thriving regional and rural communities. Certainly, it is the ambition and our collective effort is geared towards ensuring that more people than ever are living, working and raising families outside urban centres. We have made significant strides in this area.

One of the key milestones in this transition has been the success of the remote working initiatives and a campaign, which I championed, to bring our people back home to each of our counties. Through my involvement within the GAA, I encountered the imbalance created by people leaving their native communities to find employment in a number of ways. For clubs, it was hard to keep players involved. Many of those who had left formed a longing to come back. Of course, it was tough for families to watch their loved ones leave. We need to recognise the immense potential and the ambition that the Government has demonstrated in remote working. It has championed a movement for many people and individuals to reside in their rural areas pursuing a career that they are passionate about. This decision has certainly transformed the way we view rural Ireland turning it into a more attractive option for those seeking a balanced and fulfilling lifestyle. The ability for many to work remotely has not only provided opportunities for our talented youth to stay connected to their roots but has also revitalised rural economies and created some thriving regional communities there.

Second to this is the decision by Fine Gael, and our commitment, to sign the national broadband plan. We recognised the critical need for connectivity in rural communities and we took action to address this. By bridging the digital divide, we have empowered rural communities to connect with markets across the world. That certainly has enabled businesses and entrepreneurship and ensures rural residents have access to opportunities and services that they have never had access to previously. They can now enjoy that like their urban counterparts.

I must also address a misguided assessment by some of the Sinn Féin opposition on how Government has failed to deliver on key infrastructure projects in the west. Let me present some of the facts. The Taoiseach himself is opening the largest infrastructure project in Mayo tomorrow, namely a €300 million investment in a road network between Castlebar and Westport. We have the €240 million Ballaghdereen to Scramogue road project, which is undergoing another tender process due to the collapse of Roadbridge. That certainly demonstrates our commitment to resolving obstacles in terms of infrastructure deficits in the west. We are also investing €145 million in the national broadband plan in Mayo connecting more than 35,000 homes and businesses and ensuring rural areas have access to essential digital services. Under the Department of Rural and Community Development, which was set up over six years ago, more than €102 million in funding has been delivered into County Mayo. This includes €31 million from the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund; and €6.5 million from the town and village renewal fund.

Certainly, things are working like they have never worked before. The investment into rural areas, such as my own in the west, has never been seen before. Certainly, we have one of the jewels in the west and north-west region and that is Ireland West Airport Knock. Through the Government's regional airport programme, this vital transportation hub continues to thrive. We are very optimistic this year that it will reach 1 million passengers. That would be an enormous achievement for an airport of its size.

The revitalisation of rural Ireland and the implementation of Our Rural Future policy framework is testament to the dedication, vision and hard work of our Ministers within the Department and our Government Coalition partners. Through the initiatives, such as remote working, investment in infrastructure such as the national broadband plan and fostering entrepreneurship, we have set rural Ireland on a path to success and prosperity. We now need to redouble our efforts and our commitment to build vibrant regional and rural communities for generations to come. No doubt budget 2024 will again deliver for the people in rural Ireland.

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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First of all, I recognise the significant achievement of the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, in redressing the rural imbalance. The Minister has fought hard at the Cabinet table to have a budget and she has made a vast amount of money available for different projects in rural areas.

I suppose we are never satisfied as public representatives. My county is a rural county and we have a significant number of Ukrainian refugees and asylum seekers coming to our county. For example, Roscrea, a town where the schools have DEIS status and there are many challenges, already has an asylum centre. There was an announcement last week - the announcement was drip fed to the community as well which is not a satisfactory way to do it - that they are getting 402 Ukrainian refugees in the next couple of months. For this to succeed and work in the community, there has to be significant investment. We had the allocation of grants a couple of weeks ago for communities with Ukrainian refugees but this effort has to be increased and redoubled. I refer to GP services and educational services. With this amount of people coming in, it will put huge pressure on a structure that is already under pressure. In rural areas, we find it extremely difficult to get new GPs. People find it difficult to get access to GPs. When the Minister brings in this amount of extra families into a rural town, it will need extra resources. The communities of such towns want reassurances that those resources will be provided. We all want to see Ukrainians settling in our communities and, hopefully, start to work in those communities and have the services that they deserve but the local communities have to get their reassurances as well. As for the educational system, that number of young children coming into those schools in September will put very significant extra pressure on the schools in that town. We have other villages and towns around County Tipperary in the same situation. Dundrum, which is a handy-sized village, has a very significant amount of refugees as well. That rural village needs the resources to be able to cater for these people.

The other point I want to make in the short time available to me is about the infrastructure that we need for housing in villages.

Waste treatment plants are non-existent in an awful lot of villages. In others, the capacity is far too low. For these villages to have any housing development, waste treatment plants will have to be either installed or greatly improved. If a village is to thrive, a new housing development is the key. It will keep the school alive, the shop open and so on. Housing is the lifeblood of any rural village. In my county, more than 60 villages do not have waste treatment plants. That has to change. There was a report earlier regarding water quality in this country. While fingers will be pointed at various sectors, waste treatment plants are non-existent in some cases. In others, the capacity is not nearly adequate enough. We need significant investment in this area. We all want villages to thrive. New houses are key to that, but the infrastructure they need must be put in place.

Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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I, too, welcome the opportunity to have this important discussion. During my first term in this House, from 2011 to 2016, if we had had one quarter of the money that is available for the schemes being pumped into rural Ireland at the moment, we would have been very glad. There was not a bob to be got in the first five years when I was here. We are, thankfully, in a far better position than we were ten or 12 years ago. Nevertheless, it is all about ensuring that the money is spent in the right places and is invested strategically. I welcome all the schemes, some of which are excellent, such as the town and village renewal scheme, the outdoor recreation infrastructure scheme and CLÁR. The funding from the latter is important. However, it is also important that when it is delivered to local authorities, it be drawn down quickly. The Minister of State might follow up, on foot of this debate, to ensure there will be no undue delay by local authorities in drawing down funding.

I might give two examples in this regard. In 2021, there was an announcement of funding for a town centre first plan for Milltown, County Kerry. We are still waiting to see the plan. In the meantime, people have been asking for a bus stop and looking for various things. The default answer is that we are waiting for the town centre first plan and we will see what happens after that. There is a complete halt in regard to any progress on these small but not inconsequential issues for people while we wait for these things to happen. They have to happen more quickly when the funding has been granted.

Another example, highlighted by my party colleague Tommy Griffin recently, relates to the absolute chaos on Inch beach during the June bank holiday weekend. There was hot weather, combined with the bank holiday weekend. There is a complete lack of adequate infrastructure for the thousands of people who visit that location. An Inch beach master plan was announced by the Department in 2021, yet there is still no sign of the master plan and everything is on hold. These are issues we need to work on to ensure there will be efficiency in the drawdown once the funding has been granted. If the local authority does not draw it down in time, let us take the money back and it will not be so slow to draw it down the next time. That needs to happen to ensure delivery.

Moreover, we need to examine the local improvement scheme, LIS. There is clearly a capacity problem on the part of some local authorities regarding the number of roads they can deal with every year. In Kerry, we will have been waiting for 20 years to clear the list. These are not private roads. They are classified as non-council roads but they serve communities. Some of them are strategically very important, given they link people to amenities and valuable locations in the area. The model needs to be looked at. If local authorities do not have the capacity, will the Department consider other models? The money is there. Will the Department provide funding to clear these lists sooner? I tabled a parliamentary question on this last night and was told that my local authority had indicated it has capacity to deal with 16 further roads. At that rate, we will be waiting many decades to clear our list.

The national broadband plan is a strategic, visionary investment that got a lot of criticism at the time. Once Covid and the lockdowns kicked in, however, people really valued it, and it will be even more valued as time goes on. Even so, some people have fallen through the cracks. Some of the low-hanging fruit was taken by commercial operators and National Broadband Ireland, NBI, cleared up everyone else, but some people are not getting the 30 MB they were promised. Perhaps they never will get it from the commercial operators and would have been far better off waiting for NBI. What is going to happen to these people? They are predominantly people in rural areas and they are suffering from a lack of connectivity because they were taken on board by the commercial operators and not by NBI. I highlight the case of Milltown village, County Kerry, which is one example of where this is happening. The topography there has resulted in wireless services not being very good. Will there be a review of what NBI is covering where there is inadequate coverage and where the 30 MB that was promised has not reached?

In the context of regional connectivity, it is important there be a review of the major roads projects that are not currently on the NDP but need to be. A specific example relates to the section of the N22 from Macroom to Ballincollig and Ovens. It is a strategic road. Half of it has been completed but we need to get that connectivity between Cork and Kerry. The engine of the south west is Cork city, but for counties such as Kerry, we need to have adequate connectivity and that road has to be on the agenda.

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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I am sharing time with Deputy Ó Murchú.

The issues relating to rural Ireland have been well voiced during the debate, and for the vast majority living in rural areas, the big issues that face them are similar to those that face the rest of the country, namely, those of housing and health. For an awful lot of people living in my constituency, when they look for health services, they do not get the same level of service they would get if they lived in Dublin or other large urban areas, and that is a big issue. There are similar issues with home help and care of the elderly and people with disabilities. All those matters fall into those categories.

The specific issue I wish to focus on relates to the life of the small rural parish. According to the Central Statistics Office, CSO, figures from the recent census, the population per square kilometre in a lot of regions, not least in rural areas, is below 35 to 40 people. When a rural parish falls below that level, it is in terminal decline. It will not be able to field a football team, keep open a school or last. Those parishes need to get targeted assistance to ensure they can survive, because they are not going to otherwise. Some of the towns and villages around them are doing okay and some of them will have houses built in them, and there was talk earlier about how when a housing estate is built, it helps such areas, but in many of those rural parishes, there is no town. Very often, there is difficulty with getting planning permission for one-off rural houses and with a range of matters. School transport is a huge problem.

Everything is designed to push people further and further away from those areas and into the small town that might be beside it. This applies to vast areas of the country. I come from a rural parish called Aghavas and there is no town in it. In the one next to it, Drumreilly, there is no town in that either, nor in the one across the way, Gortletteragh. Cloone is a small village but, again, it did not get the huge number of houses that some places got during the boom and it is in terminal decline. The schools in those parishes, in the next ten to 15 years, may not even be there.

These kinds of parishes will need to get specific resources. Grants, schemes and so on are useful and worthwhile, but places such as I have described, which are easy to measure, such as any area that comprises under 40 people per square kilometre, need to get specific attention and additional resources. There needs to be a way of doing that. The Government can do it if it has the intention of looking after and ensuring rural Ireland will prosper. It is from those small spaces that the rest will come and grow.

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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We need to have a conversation about rural living and what our rural future is going to be. There are certain benefits from what has been done through remote working hubs, although remote working has thrown up certain issues. In my constituency, thanks to partition, there are certain jobs people cannot do remotely because of differences between the taxation systems in the two jurisdictions. This is a problem throughout Europe and further afield but it is a particular problem in Ireland. That was highlighted recently when PayPal closed its operation in Dundalk, and a number of people who had been working in the North were told they would have to be transferred to PayPal UK, as it is called. Obviously, this is not applicable to many smaller companies, but it is a specific issue on which the Government has to do some heavy lifting. We may be in a better position through being able to deliver a bilateral solution with the UK Government. The issue is beginning to impact on a number of my constituents, as well as people in neighbouring constituencies.

Deputy Kenny and others spoke about the fact rural communities suffer from the same difficulties as urban ones, such as healthcare and accommodation.

The Deputy spoke specifically about issues relating to getting planning permission for one-off houses in rural areas. We really need to have a more streamlined view on what the steps, obstacles and protocols need to be because we need to have a system that will work. We keep talking about sustaining rural communities, but that will not be possible if we do not facilitate people to actually live in them.

There is no shortage of issues that need to be dealt with. Previous speakers drew attention to issues relating to public liability insurance. We have all seen the issues that have arisen for active tourism companies and many others. Obviously all of this needs to be done but we could talk about schools, dereliction, vacancy, and about some of the good stuff that has been done. We could talk about the fact that this particular Department deals with the mobile phone and broadband task force. In those areas that are going to be later on the roll-out of the national broadband plan, we really need that the Department, alongside the Commission for Communications Regulation, ComReg, would provide the information for people on what alternatives are available, whether we are talking about wired solutions or low-Earth-orbit satellite broadband systems. All that needs to be employed.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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As an urban Deputy, I am obviously very conscious that I do not have the day-to-day experience of what is happening in rural Ireland. In that regard, I have to rely to a large extent on insights from those whose judgment I trust. As a result, some of what I will say will reflect what I have heard from people who are living in rural Ireland and who have particular views about what is going on there. Other things are slightly more general observations; I start with one of those.

First, it is important for people who live in urban areas to recognise that we have an interest in not seeing the underdevelopment, the degradation or the depopulation of rural Ireland. It is important to stress that, but people living in urban areas may not agree. It might not seem very immediate to them, but, in fact, the excessive concentration of population and of all the pressures on infrastructure, housing, services and so on, in a very small area around Dublin and some of the other big cities is bad for everybody. It is bad for rural Ireland and for urban Ireland. We all have an interest in balanced regional development, even to address the things that are affecting us right now whether it is housing, the pressure on housing prices, rents and so on.

The second point is that there is a narrative that suggests otherwise, namely, that there is an urban-rural divide and that one gains and the expense of the other. It is just coincidental that shortly after this debate I am due to attend a meeting of the Committee on Budgetary Oversight at which - it has to be said at my suggestion, but fair play to the committee for taking it up - Oxfam is going to make the case for a wealth tax. Some very interesting background papers that are relevant to the debate we are having here have been produced. Those produced by the Parliamentary Budget Office, PBO, and my committee's secretariat, and reinforced by Oxfam, start with the gross and growing inequality in the distribution of wealth in Ireland. They show, for example, that the top 10% households own 47% of all of the wealth. There is a massive and growing concentration of the wealth in the hands of a relatively small percentage of the population. That is interesting because there is also a geographical aspect to this which is very stark. Some 55% of net wealth is located in the eastern and midland areas.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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It is all here in Dublin.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Some 30% of it is in the southern region. The areas that have the least of it are the west and north, which has only 14% of the wealth. As can be seen, there is a stark inequality in the distribution of wealth.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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However, if you marry that with some other facts that we saw in the Teagasc survey on farm incomes published in recent days, you can see that average farm incomes vary radically. Again, there are gross and shocking inequalities. The average dairy farmer has an income of €97,000. I am sure there are plenty of medium-sized dairy farmers who do not have that size of income, so we can be almost certain that this is again concentrated in a very small number of hands. Then there is the average beef farmers who is on €16,000. How could anybody live on €16,000? The average sheep farmer is a little bit better off on €20,000. However, those poorest of farmers who live on a fraction of the income of the wealthiest farmers make up the vast majority of those involved in farming. Some 84,000 of the 135,000 farms in this country are of the poor kind. Their owners are on absolutely miserable incomes. There is an extremely important alignment of a gross inequality in the distribution of wealth and incomes in rural Ireland.

To reinforce that point, I rang Gerry Loftus of the Rural Ireland Organisation to ask him what he would say is the central problem that needs to be addressed in rural Ireland. He more or less said that there will not be a rural Ireland in about ten or 20 years' time - or not much of it - because of the industrial model of agriculture that has been developed in this country which is destroying the small and medium farmer to the benefit of a very small number of very wealthy farmers and the agri-industrial sector where all the wealth and all the benefit of our agriculture is concentrated. He made the point that the opposition to the EU nature restoration law is completely ridiculous. He said it was a fake debate and that if we did not deal with the issue of biodiversity destruction and the destruction of water quality reinforced in the report, in the next while there will not be any agriculture left because we will not have the water to sustain it. This is due to having an agricultural model that is based on an industrial model, primarily for export, which benefits a small minority and damages our environment but does nothing for the small farmer.

Exactly the same thing could be said about forestry. The latter is leading to poverty for the small farmer and is putting small farmers out of business. I have another anecdotal instance of this. During the week of the recess, I was down in Brandon in County Kerry staying with a friend of mine whose father is a sheep farmer. He is one of those small farmers. Looking at the incomes they are talking about, I asked him what was going to happen to his farm in a few years' time. He said there was nobody to take his farm over. Who could take it over? He has kids but who would take it over at that level of income? By the way, he is very strongly in favour of increasing biodiversity and diversifying. He is supportive of the climate and biodiversity agenda but he said there was no real interaction with rural communities and with the small farmers in terms of how we do these things in a way that does not destroy small towns or the small farmer, but actually listens and engages with them about how incomes, life and community can be sustained in rural Ireland. That is a very important message.

5 o’clock

The other thing which Gerry Loftus was also just saying to me concerned the shocking lack of investment in transport in what he called the BMW area, meaning the Border, midlands and west. That is not news and I am sure it has been repeated here. He put the blame for that squarely at the feet of Fine Gael as apparently - I was not aware of this - it opted the north west out of the Trans-European Transport Network, TEN-T, scheme of European funding. It would have meant European funding for investment in transport infrastructure in the BMW region, but for some reason the Government opted that region out of that scheme.

I have a final point to make in my last 40 seconds. Everybody accepts that for climate and biodiversity reasons, afforestation must be significantly expanded. However, I have a very different model for it than the one we have at the moment, which is damaging to the environment, not good for communities and not helping the small farmers. A critical part of this is the need to change the mandate and the approach of Coillte, the State forestry company, with respect to how it interacts with communities, small farmers and so on. The Government needs to urgently address the question of radically reforming the mandate of Coillte, which is also operating on that industrial model which is not good for rural Ireland or small and medium-sized farmers.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Dáil for facilitating this debate. I am proud to be a member of the Fine Gael Party that established the Department of Rural and Community Development. It is a Department that has become known to communities, community organisations, local authorities and small businesses across the country as a "can do" Department. Initially under the leadership of the former Minister, Deputy Ring, and under now the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, working with the Minister of State, Deputy O'Brien, this is a Department that is continuing to deliver for communities across the country. I see it in my own county of Wicklow. I am not sure there have ever been as many opportunities for local towns, villages and organisations to apply for funding and there is such a sense of partnership between Government, the Department and local communities.

Just today I have come back from Athlone, which I visited with the Minister. We launched a new initiative on higher education and remote working hubs. People who live in rural Ireland and who, for whatever reason, may not be able to get to a university physically - perhaps they are a mature learner, holding down a full-time job or caring for someone - still have as much of a right to access third level education as anybody else. It is about ensuring we can use the remote working hubs as learning hubs. There are two new programmes rolled out by the Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest, TUS, specifically aimed at making sure people in Laois, Offaly, Westmeath and Longford can now avail of these courses. It is a good and innovative step forward. We then went on to the TUS midlands campus, where we have doubled the capacity for apprentices. To Deputy Boyd Barrett's point, this ensures rural Ireland remains a vibrant place where people can get an education, a job, a skill and continue to live. We are doubling the capacity for people to become electrical and plumbing apprentices.

It is reflective of so much of the work my Department is trying to do to ensure learning, upskilling and reskilling can be accessed in any place, at any stage in life, no matter where a person lives. One of the key actions this year in our work plan is to provide long-term State support for the construction of student accommodation to make sure young people have an opportunity to come to rural Ireland and regional Ireland and access a university education there. In the Our Rural Future work plan we are committed to rolling out the further education model to facilitate community-based learning excellence across the region. It is not the responsibility of any single Department to deliver for rural Ireland and each and every one of us has a role to play. In my Department we have brought education to every part of the country. We have taken 12 institutes of technology and delivered five technological universities. These are universities of scale and ambition. We have torn up the outdated concept that if people wanted a university education they had to head to the big city. We continue to support the institutions in the cities, but people should be able to access a university education in Killybegs, as they now can, as well as in Athlone, Thurles, Ennis, Wexford, Castlebar and Sligo. Those are just some examples of what the technological universities have done to bring education into the regions as well. We have matched that with significant investment as well.

On apprenticeships, this year we will roll out our first farming apprenticeships. Four will be rolled out during the course of this calendar year. On the issue of farming, and given the research and innovation remit of my Department, we must not lecture farmers when it comes to climate. Nobody understands climate better than the farmer, by the way. We must help incentivise them by finding financial supports for them, but also by using research and innovation to help them come up with new and innovative ways to farm that we financially support. Through Science Foundation Ireland, SFI, which is one of my agencies, we are now working with the farming community to look at how it can innovate, change and how we can financially support farmers to do that as well.

I praise all the State agencies that are working so hard in my constituency, whether it is the community centres initiative, the town and village renewal supports, capital grants or rural tourism like at Avondale, where we have seen Coillte and Fáilte Ireland team up as well. Never before have there been so many funding pathways available to communities to ensure rural Ireland changes, because Ireland is changing, but also remains a vibrant place now and into the future. I remain committed, through the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, to supporting the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and the Minister of State, Deputy O'Brien, in the delivery of Our Rural Future.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on the Department of Rural and Community Development's Our Rural Future plan. As someone from a rural, small-farming background, I am familiar with many of the issues facing those living and working outside the main urban centres. I am pleased my roles at three Departments each give me the opportunity to contribute something positive towards rejuvenating and helping maximise the potential of rural Ireland. At the Department of Rural and Community Development I oversee various community work strands, including the social inclusion and community activation programme, which is effectively hundreds of community workers in towns and villages across Ireland working with those in disadvantage and social isolation. Other strands within the remit of the Department include the community enhancement programme, community services programme and the empowering communities programme, which work in rural areas to help assist with everything from running the local community centre to delivering meals on wheels, to working with rural communities experiencing the impacts of extreme deprivation.

In my role at the Department of Social Protection, I oversee employment activation schemes, including, CE, Tús and the rural social scheme, RSS. These schemes are crucial to towns and villages across rural Ireland. The RSS in particular is one of the most powerful inclusion tools we have and it makes a hugely important link between small farmers and fishers, who are often living on the most marginal land in the country, and the community they live in. A review of the RSS is currently under way and we are hearing a wide range of voices on how we can refresh the RSS to support and prepare farming and fishing communities for the challenges and opportunities ahead.

In my role at the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, I am working with community groups and workers to assist with the integration process of those arriving from Ukraine and other countries. Our rural towns and villages are finding themselves revitalised by a new, young population with new children in local schools that were at risk of becoming idle and small businesses finding themselves with a new pool of potential employees.

I have made it a point to travel to every county to visit community projects across the spectrum of my remit during my time in office and I am nearing the point when I will be able to say I have done so. On these visits I see the power of community development to bring people together and strengthening rural communities. This, combined with the work of my colleagues in other Departments is helping to reinvigorate rural Ireland and provide the framework for it to thrive. I acknowledge the work of the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, in providing funding for additional biodiversity officers in every local authority and more National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, rangers. I acknowledge the work of the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, on organic farming. The number of organic farmers has doubled since we entered Government and it is important to flag the growth in rural public transport in recent years as well. Last year saw 37 new rural routes and we are going to be looking at 67 new rural routes this year. That number needs to increase every year as we go forward.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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The first thing we must recognise is there are growing rural areas near the towns, but there are still rapidly-declining rural areas away from the towns. Rural policy in recent years seems to be focused more on large towns than it is on the more remote, more challenging rural areas. All one need do is talk to people in the GAA clubs and local schools to understand there is a danger, in some places, of the schools closing completely and that in other cases it is impossible to put a team together. We need to recognise the challenges and deal with them.

The first challenge we get is that planning policy is totally against the traditional rural settlement of rural Ireland. The establishment made up of academics and administrators seems hell-bent on making it practically impossible to build a house for one's family, especially in more scenic rural areas.

These are not one-off houses. I have never seen a one-off house. I have seen houses in dispersed rural villages but not a one-off rural house. They are all part of a community and are and were the backbone of many rural communities in Ireland. What seems to be happening is they are trying to impose planning policies from Europe where there is a different settlement history from Ireland. I applaud the willingness of the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, to listen on this issue and to take action accordingly. I am not hopeful at all that if they proceed with the rural housing guidelines as were proposed and as I heard them to be that we would be going forward. In fact, I think we would be going backwards. We need to start back at the rural planning framework, which is where the fundamental initial problem lies, and build on that and get proper rural housing guidelines. Unfortunately there is not enough time here to speak on the various issues. One issue I would like to mention is that 10% of rural houses are still dependent on wells or private sources of water. Those trying to connect to an Irish Water scheme are charged €300 per metre for a connection. It is absolutely scandalous. We need a scheme like the rural broadband scheme that would bring water to every house in the country and ensure that everybody has access to good quality public water.

The next issue I would like to talk about is roads. Some members of the Government seem to think that roads are unnecessary. We need to upgrade our roads to a minimum standard so they are safe for vehicles, cyclists and cars. One of the reasons people do not walk on rural roads is that they are totally inadequate.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Go raibh maith agat, a Theachta. We are out of time.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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It is a pity this debate is so short because in three minutes we cannot deal with even a 50th of the issues we need to deal with.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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To paraphrase Mark Twain, rumours of the demise of rural Ireland are greatly exaggerated. I was born and raised in rural Ireland as were many previous generations of my family. I remain living there. Yes, there are still issues that we need to face up to and resolve and they are going to require investment and commitment. However, every time I go home to rural east Galway I sense nothing but vibrancy, energy and a genuine sense of ambition and vision as to how our rural communities develop in the future. That has been the very core and essence of the work that is being done by the Department of Rural and Community Development, established by Fine Gael, first led by the then Minister, Deputy Ring very ably and now led equally ably by the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien. That has allowed us to develop an extraordinary sense of partnership between Government and local communities across the country. Local communities know exactly what they want to do in terms of developing facilities and employment opportunities, and they are presenting these to their local authority initially and then onwards to the Department.

I will say a word about those community and enterprise sections within our local authorities. I am speaking in particular from my own experience of working with the team in Galway County Council. They are doing incredible work, much of it without any praise or recognition, very much under the radar. They are doing it without sufficient resources in terms of staff in particular. Many people see their local authority basically as a provider of roads, water infrastructure, and wastewater infrastructure. They do not see that it has an economic development remit. Certainly within Galway County Council they take that remit very seriously indeed. I refer to the recent investment by the US company Dexcom in the town of Athenry in rural east Galway. Galway County Council's community enterprise department had a huge role to play in partnering with IDA Ireland and making the case for the very significant investment in Athenry, creating more than 1,500 jobs over the next number of years. That sense of partnership between communities, their local authority and the Department is really important and needs to be nurtured and developed in the future.

If I may make a suggestion, there are an extraordinary number of helpful, effective and impactful grant schemes emanating from the Department, to such an extent that it can cause quite a bit of confusion at times as to what exactly the schemes can and cannot support. I suggest the Department might partner with each of our local authorities in offering an annual once-off workshop for community groups from across the local authority area to come in, perhaps to visit their local authority, and hear directly from it what schemes are available, how they can access them and how they can develop that sense of partnership with their local authority in the future.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Listening to Government representatives over the course of this debate, I am minded to think that there are some who believe that delivering for rural Ireland is about photo shoots and glossy brochures, none more glossy than the Our Rural Future document itself. I recall when it was launched to much fanfare that it was described by Government as the most ambitious and transformational policy for rural development in decades. It has become the most ambitious and transformative PR opportunity for Government in many years. Quite a number of the aspirations within the Our Rural Future document are indeed worthy but the delivery is far too slow and not meaningful enough for rural areas that desperately need the type of investment that has been denied for far too long. In fact, Our Rural Future has become symbolic of photo shoots and photo calls on the part of Ministers. I come from the constituency of the senior Minister, Deputy Humphreys, who I am sure is a very hard working Minister. On many occasions, as an Opposition Deputy, I simply do not have the time to accept all the invitations extended to me as an Oireachtas Member. In once instance where I was able to attend, I attended the official opening of a car park. There have been many other smaller measures that are all very worthy and very important but did not require an entire troop of elected representatives to stand there and fight to get into the frame of the photo.

What is required are initiatives and measures to ensure that the people from those rural communities can stay, live, work and raise their own families. That requires real investment and tangible delivery on the measures that have been ignored by Government. In the context of healthcare and education, particularly for children with special needs, in my county there is not a single respite bed for children with disabilities. I am dealing with some heartbreaking situations. There is never a mention in this House from Government of issues like that. There is no special school. In some parts of my county it is virtually impossible to get an appointment with a GP. All of that arises from a decision that was made by a Fianna Fáil Government initially and subsequently by a Fine Gael Government to remove services from our local hospital. Opposition Deputies are now having to battle with the HSE on a weekly basis to restore services, extend the hours of a minor injuries unit at the hospital, and to try to battle on behalf of families we are representing.

There is much talk today from Government representatives about the regional balance of IDA Ireland investment. Across the State there are 301,475 people employed in IDA supported jobs. Every single one of them is welcome in the community they are located in. Does the Minister of State know how many of them are located in County Monaghan? Only 428, a minuscule proportion in terms of economic development. I come from a county that has no rail network and virtually no public transport service. People have to use private cars to drive to work, drive their children to school or do any of the daily things that are taken for granted in some parts of the country in terms of bus and rail services. The Government's response is to make that more expensive and more difficult. The state of our local roads in some instances is a travesty.

We are talking about economic development and what counties like Monaghan need is connectivity. Our Rural Future, the national development plan and countless other major Government strategies and launches outline the N2 and A5 road network from Letterkenny and Derry through County Monaghan to Dublin as crucial, central and pivotal infrastructure. What has this Government done? I refer particularly to the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, but apparently his Cabinet colleagues are sitting on their hands.

They have stalled the two road projects. I have no difficulty with Ministers attending photocalls and photoshoots. Any elected representatives who have the time to attend, let them at it. In regard to those smaller local projects, as important as they are, none of that will cover for the fact that this Government is failing miserably to deliver the type of infrastructure and investment so desperately required for counties such as Monaghan.

Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent)
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The Government’s five-year policy aimed to deliver well-being for all in supporting an aligned approach to rural development, specifically in regard to access to good quality public services such as public transport, healthcare and housing provision. I acknowledge the tremendous work the Minister has undertaken in implementing this plan, providing a flexible approach using rural proofing and ensuring tailored responses to different requirements at local level. The provision and investment in rural public transport infrastructure is a significant priority in enabling the rural population to grow and ensuring people can access work, education and social activities. While it must be acknowledged that the Government is acting to reduce emissions and deliver environmental, social and economic benefits to all regions, we have not invested enough in public transport in the past decade.

The solution to transport emissions is to change our system to encourage public transport and active travel. We need to ensure that rural transport is frequent, flexible, reliable and accessible. However, disability access and the lack of public transport in rural parts of counties Louth and east Meath and the affordability and reliability of existing services are issues constantly raised in my weekly clinics. The current system, due to the lack of public transport options, has been orientated towards car ownership and use. Many rural workers and families are completely reliant on private car use for education, work and leisure.

Connectivity through rural connective hubs is crucial in order to keep our rural communities alive. While there is no question of a lack of investment in this renewed plan it is imperative the Minister for Transport monitors and periodically audits progress on improving accessibility for all. As Louth is located along the commuter belt, I welcome the new regional connections between the midlands and north-east regions, linking Dundalk and Ardee, Drogheda and Trim and Athlone to Longford. However, the timeline for the delivery of the Connecting Ireland rural mobility plan must be accelerated as there is a lack of public transport infrastructure. Routes from rural parts of my constituency to larger areas, such as Dublin, have a high reliance on private commercial bus operators or cars. Robust community structures are particularly required in rural areas where the support needs of vulnerable people are pronounced due to the dispersed nature of the population.

Connectivity, whether through transport links or digital connectivity, is hugely important. The delivery of high-speed broadband to every part of the country is paramount in supporting the diversification of rural economies and jobs through digital technologies, but also in the provision of digital services such as healthcare. Ireland has an ageing population. The number of people over 65 years of age accounts for 15% of the population in rural areas.While I acknowledge the integral work of the public health nursing service in providing primary care services in rural Ireland, I specifically raise the issue of health inequalities and the lack of access to GP services in rural areas of my constituency. Although the practice support package for rural GP practices was introduced and increased by 10% under the 2019 GP agreement, there are ongoing GP access and retention issues which are likely to heighten with the extension of GP visit cards.

Access to mental health services is also hampered in rural Ireland. I have constantly raised in the Dáil the issues with CAMHS, waiting lists and lack of services in County Louth and east Meath. Digital connectivity is an equality issue as well as a business and technology issue. Over the lifetime of this policy, improved connectivity and digital innovation will support older people to live independently in their communities with access to more supports and services through connected technologies.

In regard to housing, the national planning framework, NPF, envisages an increase of 1 million in Ireland’s population by 2040, with 50% of this growth predicted to take place in rural areas. If this plan is achieved it will help to support balanced regional development. Yet, it was reported at the May meeting of Louth County Council that planning permission was refused for 40% of rural homes in 2022. From 2021, Louth’s rural planning requirements are restrictive when compared with the rest of the country especially in relation to the local needs requirement. While the population and housing needs in County Louth will continue to grow by 20% statistics in the Louth county development plan indicate that housing in rural areas will only be permitted to grow by 9.4%. Rural communities will be greatly impacted if this does not change. Housing in rural Ireland has always been a major difficulty, with planning permissions almost impossible to obtain. The variation in the reasons for refusal is shocking in a time of housing crisis. It seems planning policies are very anti-rural in nature, pushing people from rural communities into towns. We must turn that around by easing the restrictions on planning.

The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage said in May 2023 that updated guidelines will expand on the high-level spatial planning policy of the NPF, in particular on national policy objective 19 which relates to rural housing. However, if the local authority development plans are inconsistent with population needs, and the rejection rate is ever increasing, these guideline changes are required immediately. In doing so, we can alleviate the housing crisis and aid the development of rural Ireland.

Overall, I emphasise the crucial need for balanced regional development throughout the country, specifically in areas such as County Louth and east Meath, which I represent. It is imperative we continue to focus on the delivery of high-quality infrastructure in rural communities to ensure economic, social, cultural and environmental well-being and development in rural areas. Over the lifetime of this policy, improved connectivity and digital innovation will help communities to have greater outreach meaning a better quality of life for rural dwellers.

Cathal Berry (Kildare South, Independent)
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I am delighted to be in the Chamber this afternoon to speak about rural Ireland. As a farm boy, it is a topic that is close to my heart. From the outset, I should say I never really bought into the urban-rural divide, and I know the Minister of State is a Dublin Deputy. I know it exists but it should not. I never felt there was an "us" and "them". If rural Ireland thrives, it is in Dublin’s interest. It will cut down congestion, difficulty with housing and the pressures on services. I compare Ireland with other islands around the world, for example, New Zealand. Auckland is in the northern tip but Wellington and Christchurch in the south are also quite large cities. They seem to have got the balance right in other countries. I am not sure who said that Ireland sometimes feels as if it is going to tip into the Irish Sea, because it is so imbalanced towards the east coast. We certainly have a great deal of work to do from that perspective.

The second point I wish to raise relates to remote working. I take the points the Minister made earlier. I totally agree with the remote working policy. There are now tens of thousands of what I describe as "invisible jobs" all over rural Ireland. It proves the point that the premises was never really where the productivity came from. Productivity comes from people not from premises. Now people work at their kitchen tables, in remote hubs and in small businesses throughout the country. That is a good thing. It certainly opened up much of rural Ireland.

It is not just about the jobs, as the Minister pointed out. It is about all the spin-offs and the benefits from a community perspective. People are not commuting as much so it cuts down the cost of commuting and the emissions associated with it. It keeps people in their towns where they are having coffees, lunches and are around to support their families and their communities. That is great progress.

I support the roll-out of community hubs. That is also a good thing. However, I have one concern. Whenever I visit these hubs, they are not working to full capacity. There is spare capacity, which I am sure the Minister has seen. They are available now but I am not sure they are as accessible as they could be or should be. The costs vary but €10 a day per hot desk could probably be looked at with a view to reducing it to make it more accessible so people would not have to book in. It is great to have the network but in my experience it is not yet working to full capacity. We can work on that.

I acknowledge the progress that has happened. The Minister outlined many funding schemes that are available, which are excellent. Town and village renewal, the LEADER programme and the community centre schemes are all good bar one major issue. There is just not enough of them. We have enough schemes but not enough funding for them. A gentleman named Maoiliosa O’Culachain works on our team in Portarlington. He has a brilliant phrase. He says that "people with money have no ideas, and people with the ideas have no money". The key is to match those groups of people. I agree with the schemes. As the Minister is probably aware, there are dozens if not hundreds of viable projects throughout the country that are crying out for funding. They are legally sound, they make perfect sense and they are financially viable but they were not picked up by these schemes because there is not enough funding available. We have a good deal of surplus coming up in the budget in October. I am not advocating for a splurge in any way, shape or form but the Government could spend half and save half.

If the Minister is going to spend money, she will get massive bang for her buck in rural Ireland. Every euro that is given to rural Ireland is spent ten or 11 times. The funding makes perfect sense from that point of view.

As my good colleague pointed out, the Achilles heel of rural Ireland is housing. It is a major issue. Even though there is a housing crisis, it is almost impossible to get planning permission. Most people who come to my constituency office are young couples who are very environmentally aware. The last thing they want to do is cause any kind of harm to the environment. A big issue is that is it very difficult to get even a preplanning meeting with the local planning authority. In almost every circumstance, if someone is seeking a preplanning meeting, it should be facilitated. We often speak about communication issues. It is difficult to put in a very rigidly formatted planning application and to have it declined. Preplanning meetings would be a good way to go. The Minister of State is a member of the Green Party, which has a particular philosophy regarding one-off housing. Local authorities purchase and suballocate sites for industrial and commercial use, including for business parks. Has any thought been given to purchasing large sites for residential use and making those sites available to young couples and families who want build their own homes on serviced sites? That is a possibility that could be examined.

I support the Croí Cónaithe scheme. People are out the door of constituency offices inquiring about applications. A grant of €50,000 to €70,000 is a good amount and is making a difference. It is addressing the housing issue to an extent and also addressing the dereliction issue, which is hugely important.

From a costal Ireland point of view, I agree in principle with the offshore wind programme. However, it needs to be expedited. The Minister, Deputy Ryan, said the first turbine would be in place in 2026 or thereabouts. I urge him to expedite the programme as best as possible. It is very important for rural Ireland, specifically the coastal areas that have suffered massively from a fishing perspective. Europe and the world need Ireland to lead on wind generation. Any time an international delegation comes to the House, its members always inquire about what the hold-up or blockage is and why Ireland is taking so long to harness this renewable resource. Some people would say Ireland is like the Kuwait of north-western Europe when it comes to wind energy and that finding the wind is like finding oil. In fact, it is far more important than that. The wind will always be there and we should try to expedite the process of harnessing it as best we can.

I am very hopeful for rural Ireland. We have three areas in particular to work on. The first relates to planning regulations. In a housing crisis, we should be promoting and encouraging people to build houses rather than preventing them from doing so. The second issue is the need to work on public transport provision. Third, we need to exploit offshore wind for the benefit of coastal communities.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I am sharing time with Deputy Ring.

As colleagues have pointed out, there are a lot of community schemes, including the RRDF, the town and village renewable scheme, CLÁR, the outdoor recreation infrastructure scheme and so on. The difference these schemes make in communities is amazing. Communities are the heart and centre of rural Ireland. There is no doubt about that. In our villages, towns and cities, people often come together voluntarily to undertake a project for which they must raise funds. It is fantastic when the Government can provide much of the funding. It might not be able to give all the money but it can provide a large part of what is needed to make these projects happen. That makes a massive difference in communities. Sometimes the funding involved is small, as colleagues have set out, and sometimes it is quite large. For instance, more than €4 million has been granted to Youghal library. It is an amazing project but it has not started yet. I am a bit impatient to see it get going. There is a lot of work involved in design, planning and all the rest of it, but the €4 million is sitting there as we wait for that to be done.

The regeneration of town centres is hugely important. There is nothing worse than going to a town and seeing a lot of shops empty and boarded up. More than €250,000 has been made available for the Youghal town centre regeneration project. It will make a massive difference. The same is true in Fermoy, to which €1.5 million has been allocated to rejuvenate the town centre. I could give more examples. We all must fight for our own areas. The smaller funding can also make a massive difference. It can be used for upgrading walkways, pathways and so on. That makes a difference to people locally.

There may be areas in our country that do not have community organisations. Will the Minister ask her officials to see whether there are pockets that do not have such activity? As I am sure colleagues will agree, if an area has a dynamic and well-supported community council, it can move mountains. Such councils can get a great deal of stuff done, including working with the local authority to bring forward projects. Many such projects come from the ground up, progressed by people living locally and who know their area. They go to the local authority to say they want to get something done. The local authority works with them to put a proposal to the Department.

The economy is going well and that means money can be made available to communities. This is a result of the Government's policies. People should acknowledge, recognise and celebrate that. I am around long enough to remember when we had no money in this country. We were really poor and had nothing at all. Ireland is now a vibrant place. As colleagues across the way have said more than once, we are one of the richest countries in the world. We are in a position now to put this funding into our communities.

Deputy Berry is dead right in what he said about remote working hubs. There are 319 hubs now in operation across the country, with a target of more than 400. Remote working means people do not have to travel long distances, thereby saving on diesel, petrol or, in the case of electric cars, charging costs. People can stay in their own community, village or town. They can come out their front door, walk down the street and go into the remote working hub to do their work rather than having to drive 20 km, 30 km or 40 km to a city or other location. They are also saving time and their quality of life is improved.

It is all about quality of life. That is what the Minister has been promoting as she travels the country meeting people, talking about projects and funding those projects. I ask her to keep that going as long as possible. A lot of work has been completed. Our vibrant communities are identifying more and more projects and bringing them forward. Most of the projects are being accepted, funded, grant-aided and supported by the Government. That is what needs to be done. We need to build our communities. The Muintir na Tíre community councils in rural areas do fantastic work. We must build them up and support the energy and dynamism of the volunteers who are often the people to identify projects locally. They know what works for their communities and what will make a difference. These projects are making a difference.

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I had the honour of being Minister in the Department of Rural and Community Development. I acknowledge the tremendous work done by the current Minister. She has travelled the country and done a fantastic job. Despite what we sometimes hear from Opposition Members, people in rural Ireland appreciate everything that is being done by her Department. It has provided funding for many groups.

Just today, there was good news for Ballinrobe, a town that needs any kind of development it can get. The Leas-Cheann Comhairle knows that because she knows the town well. Today, the Minister informed me she is able to allocate €278,513 to the town, along with the €4 million-plus she has already allocated. That means €4,873,000 has been allocated to a new arts and civic centre. It is a town that needs development. The community is really behind it. Local people have raised €1 million. I thank the Minister for the additional funding she has allocated today. The project would not have started without the extra money she has given.

As was the case when I was Minister, there are many projects being developed. I understand the Minister will be in Fethard, County Tipperary, next Sunday. I hope Deputy Mattie McGrath and his colleagues will be there to support her. She has put fantastic money into that development by way of a fantastic public private partnership. The community there needed it to be done.

The money given under the town and village renewal scheme, the safe routes to school programme and all the other projects have really helped and supported rural Ireland. I want to put that on record. We are sometimes afraid to say things on the record of the House. There are more people working and living in rural Ireland than there ever have been at any time since the foundation of the State. It is not me or the Government saying that. The figures from the Central Statistics Office, CSO, show it is the case.

All is not bad in rural Ireland. Tomorrow, we will see progress on the €300 million development of the first dual carriageway in the country starting in the west and going to the east.

It is usually starting in the east and coming to the west. That is because this Government and this Minister have provided the funding and have made the decision that they are going to support rural Ireland. There are many projects under way. I know the Leas-Chathaoirleach has an interest in the islands. The Minister launched the Our Living Islands strategy last week. This Government has supported the islands. They should be supported and they need to be supported.

On the money the Minister is giving out, the only complaint I have, and it is a complaint, is that she and her Department and are not selling what they are doing enough. The local authorities could be reacting more and delivering more. They are not delivering. The one thing I ask is for the Department to look to see if there are any other agencies it could work with to deliver the projects. The Department has the money and the local authorities are not spending it. The Department is providing the money. I thank the Minister for that. The dome in Bekan and the velorail that opened in Kiltimagh last week are new initiatives that would not have happened if the funding had not been provided by the Department. The Minister will have my support for the budget. I am saying to the Government, the Taoiseach, my party and the parties in government that we want more responsibility to be given to this Department. The Minister should be in charge of roads and sport, and her Department should be given more funding by Government because she is targeting rural Ireland. We are getting the funding down there. Of course, I could list out ten more things we want done, but we should be highlighting the many developments that are taking place. There are some fantastic developments. The rural regeneration scheme is a fantastic scheme. There are great projects being rolled out all over the country. The Minster should keep up the good work. She has my support. I will be spelling it out later, at the meeting of the parliamentary party, that we want more money for rural development and we want to see the local authorities spending it.

Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
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For your own backyard.

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Let us give the Minister credit where it is due.

Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
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For your own backyard; that is all.

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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It is not all negativity, Deputy McGrath. Be in Fethard in Tipperary on Sunday to see the development being opened.

Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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We should have a round of applause after that.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Was that the start of the election campaign?

John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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It is always the start of an election campaign when Deputy Ring speaks. I want to continue from him. It is a hard act to follow. I thank the Deputy and his successor, the Minister for Rural and Community Development. The Department was closed down in the teeth of a recession, when it was probably more needed than ever, and reopened, thankfully, by the previous Government. It reaches into every corner of the country. It is not just about rural communities. Urban communities have benefitted from the Department too. Some of our regional towns and smaller places have benefitted. Deputy Ring mentioned Ballinrobe. I am struck by places in Kilkenny, which have faced economic decline and have not been the same since the 1970s, that are hopping now because of money they have got from the Department of Rural and Community Development. I think, in particular, of places like Graiguenamanagh. Any local businessperson there will say that this year and last year have been bumper years tourism-wise because there are facilities there now funded through the Minister's Department that they only dreamt of for decades. Every community in the country that is organised is in a position to benefit from the funding that is available. Deputy Ring mentioned some of the schemes, including the rural regeneration scheme. The laneways money is provided through the Minister's Department, as is the CLÁR funding. My county of Kilkenny, significant parts of which are designated CLÁR areas, has benefitted from CLÁR funding. The Department also provides the islands funding and so many other schemes, often through the councils.

I am struck by what Deputy Ring said about local authorities. Some local authorities are very good and very organised at drawing down money. Some are shocking. Most of them are good at some things and bad at other things. When it comes to the sourcing of funding for rural development in this country, generally speaking, it is the local authorities that fall down, not the Department itself. The Department is more than willing to provide support. Organised communities that put forward properly thought-through plans are being supported by the Minister and her Department. I thank her sincerely for that. I will name two places in my own county. Despite its success on the hurling field, when Ballyhale was bypassed a few years ago, virtually every business on the main street closed. The Department, first through the former Minister, Deputy Ring, then through the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, reopened the tea rooms and the community shop on the street in Ballyhale, and the community is back and functioning again. It is the same with Windgap village. I remember having both the former Minister, Deputy Ring, and the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, at different stages in Windgap, Piltown, Thomastown and other places that never saw the colour of the money. These small villages, in many cases, are getting hundreds of thousands of euro that they have never had an opportunity to get before. They get value for money in those communities. Facilities are built that are used, because they are owned by the community. They are thought of and brought to fruition by local voluntary groups that are getting financial support from the Government, as they should.

The final point I want to make, and I have spoken to the Minister about it before, is that I hope that as the role of the churches diminishes in rural communities, some of the funding will be available in future for burial grounds. I am finding in Kilkenny that there are some communities without a priest or a church structure of whatever denomination. They have cemeteries that are overflowing and need extension and they are not in a position to do that work. Perhaps some of the schemes available through the Minister's Department could be tweaked. We are finding that the local voluntary sector is taking up the slack from the lack of having a reverend person in the community, and that is going to be the case into the future. Those local communities could do with that little bit of a hand-up in the future too.

Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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The document we are speaking about here is heavy on ambition, but unfortunately it lacks detailed timelines and some aspects of it appear to ignore key elements of what a rural community needs. Listening to some of the Government Members sitting across from me, I wonder if we are living in the same country at all. To give the Minister credit, there are areas that have benefitted, but there are large sections of rural Ireland that have been totally ignored under this Government and previous governments. While the Minister can list out all the areas that have been developed and the whole thing, let us get real and tell the Minister something the Government does not do. Take health, for example. A significant focus is placed on primary care in the document, and rightly so. Unfortunately, the experience of many communities in my county of Tipperary is that it can come at the expense of other services, and there is often a price to pay. The people of Carrick-on-Suir and Roscrea will attest to this. While I will not go into detail here, I will say that in my experience care in the community has been used at times to actually remove care settings from communities in favour of administration blocks and offices and so on. The care aspect is often farmed out to private operators in the community, while the State services are centralised to areas of higher population density. For families with loved ones in need of certain services like palliative care and so on, this is problematic. It is an unacceptable way of using the term "community care".

Moving on to housing, of course, the Government's track record is dreadfully poor. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage's own homelessness data confirm the upward trend that has been realised in rural Ireland, with Tipperary being no exception. I want to focus on access to housing and how this is sitting uncomfortably with the action 45 policy measure, which states, "Through the National Disability Inclusion Strategy, develop initiatives to improve employment opportunities for people with disabilities living in rural areas, including through remote working options." This is a laudable aim, but getting people into employment can, for many, be dependent on accessing suitable housing that is close to workplaces and to the services they need. This is not addressed by the Government in any meaningful way. For example, there is a family in my constituency that has been served with a notice to quit. They have a child with special needs. They need a suitable house in a location that is easily accessed by the services the child needs. That family is battling to get such a home. The council is trying to assist, but it is an uphill struggle. When we talk about initiatives to improve opportunities for people with disabilities living in our rural areas, we need to put the focus on the essentials as well, including a place to live that enables access to services, employment and what they actually need.

The policy measure set out in action 66 is to, "Review the situation in relation to water services for towns and villages that are not currently on the Irish Water network." There are far too many estates in this country that are living in limbo because of the complexity of the taking-in-charge process. This is having its own impact on the availability of rural housing in Ireland. While I acknowledge that some work has been done here, I believe Uisce Éireann needs to address its responsibilities in relation to this issue. This needs the intervention of the Minister to insist that the work be done as soon as possible.

I also want to talk about roads infrastructure. Those in this Chamber will recall that the issue of the bypass in Tipperary town is raised here frequently. I will raise it again. I also raise the wider issue of the funding for the N24 project and how the funding for upcoming phases can be withheld until public and political pressure gets to a point that it can be addressed.

This is no way to treat rural communities. We need adequate infrastructure corridors which take traffic off the streets of congested towns like Tipperary and link in a more direct way one part of the country with another.

Recently we had a shortfall in funding for the Cahir to Limerick Junction bypass, part of the N24 project. Before that, we had the planned postponement of the N24 Waterford to Cahir project. Communities are expected to beg for appropriate funding which is unacceptable. Then we hear that the Department of Transport has underspent its capital budget by almost €100 million in the first quarter of this year. If connecting rural Ireland is high on the Government’s agenda, we really need to know exactly what are the priorities of this Government and whose influence is causing such inconsistency in approach.

On the sustainability of agriculture, marine and forestry, action 128 in the Government’s plan commits it to publishing a successor forestry programme to deliver an ambitious afforestation plan to achieve an afforestation target of 8,000 ha a year. We are now six months into what would be a forestry programme if the Government had engaged with the EU on the issue of state aid approval ahead when the programme should have come into effect. Instead, a mere seven afforestation licences have been issued this year. The industry and the Government’s targets are being left in limbo. A sector which had not been served well prior to this now feels abandoned and our annual target of 8,000 ha a year is further away than ever.

I urge this Government to put specific timelines to the ambitions in this document and engage with the sectors for whom this document falls well short.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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Ar an gcéad dul síos, I thank the Minister present here for all her good work. On a personal note, I also thank her for calling to a nephew of mine and his family when he had an accident recently, which I appreciate.

Beidh fíorfháilte roimpi go dtí an Fiodh Ard i dTiobraid Árann an Domhnach seo chugainn. She will be welcome to Fethard and we do not need Deputy Ring to tell us about it.

All of this is great as is everything the Minister does, but alongside all of this happening and the great money that is being spent on the URDF and all of that, the Government has set up the Office of the Planning Regulator, there is the Land Development Agency and the CEOs - county managers – so there is absolutely no power now for the county councillors.

We have a situation with our own county development plan where a long-existing crèche wishes to expand in Tipperary and the county development plan will not allow it. On the one hand the Government is giving and with the other one it is frustrating, blocking and stopping with all the regressive legislation which has been coming in.

We then have situations such as the Tipperary town bypass struggling for funding while there has been an underspend, and we have the Minister, Deputy Ryan, and the Green Party destroying rural Ireland. This money might as well be wasted. I salute all the community groups engaging with the Minister and with us and getting the funding for valuable projects. On the other hand, the life is being sucked out. The Minister of State, Senator Hackett, just cancelled forestry. It is cancel culture at its very best.

We then have the situation at Ardfinnan bridge in the village of Ardfinnan where for eight years this has been blocked and made into a single carriageway because it was nearly damaged in a flood. Money was spent on consultants who decided to put in a separate stand-alone bridge. Who blocked it? I will name him here in this House. It was the director of services, Marcus O’Connor, from Tipperary County Council blocked that funding, now that the Department and Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, have thrown it out. He told the council meeting on Monday that he agreed with TII, after we had got independent consultants to develop an independent report and send it to TII. We have senior officials who are unaccountable to the elected members or to anybody and who are getting away with this kind of blackguarding of people and communities. It is shocking. All is not well in rural Ireland because we are being blackguarded.

Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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It is hard to overstate the level of disconnect which appears to exist between what the Government believes it is doing for rural Ireland and what people on the ground in rural Ireland are actually experiencing. For decades we have talked about balanced regional development to take away some of the imbalance between rural, urban and city economies. When we look at job creation, we see an Offaly where there were just four visits by the IDA in 2022. If we are serious about creating jobs in a county that has seen a great deal of injustice with the ending of peat harvesting, we need to get real. Government needs to set real targets for the IDA for the economy in the midlands and what is expected there.

The rural planning system, no more than the planning system in general, is still a mess. Young rural dwellers cannot build a home even on their own parents’ land. Organisations like Macra na Feirme, while welcoming some progress, are blue in the face from pointing out the lack of viability and prospects impacting young farmers.

Yesterday we had this confirmed on agriland.ie, where it was stated that at least 10,600 jobs are expected to go from farm and farm-related work right up to 2035. The document we are discussing today, Our Rural Future, speaks of an inextricable link between diversification of farming enterprises and of sustainable lands such as forestry, bio economy and renewable energy-related development. Yet by every single metric, forestry is an absolute disaster. Only yesterday, the Social Economic Environmental Forestry Association, SEEFA, called the situation a new rock bottom.

I accept there are some positive developments and I know the Minister was in my own constituency of Offaly recently, but there is a great deal to be done and that is the reality.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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The Minister knows exactly and personally what I think of her. She knows she is highly regarded in places like Portmagee in County Kerry where she is held in the highest of respect. The only problem is when we are talking about the rest of her colleagues. We have Minister for roads and transportation who does not like building roads, bypasses or bridges. The Green Party members have already held up numerous major infrastructural projects which we want to go ahead with in this country and, to be honest, their whole ethos is anti-rural Ireland. Yesterday, the Government had a very proactive person like the Minister in attendance and like the previous speaker who spoke from the Government side, the former Minister, Deputy Ring. The only thing that is wrong with Deputy Ring at present is that he is not a current Minister because he was a good Minister when he was in office, which I will acknowledge any day of the week. We need people, however, who have an understanding of rural Ireland. Unfortunately, there are people on the Government benches who do not understand that.

I make one very special plea on behalf of people in Kerry, which is for the local improvement schemes. I thank Deputy Ring for what he did with local improvement schemes. In our county, for example, we have such a long list that there are people on it who will be waiting not for five or ten years but for 15 or 20 years before their road is actually done. That last piece of road up to a person’s house is the most important road in the whole country to that person because wherever they are going. they will have to travel on that piece of road. I plead with the Minister because there is something like approximately €10 million. I am wasting my time asking the Minister, Deputy Ryan, about it because he would not understand the question when asked by me. I am asking the Minister present to try to use her influence to direct more money into the local improvement scheme roads programme for places like County Kerry so that the people living in those areas can look forward to seeing their roads tarred sooner rather than later and that they might be alive when the roads will be tarred.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I, too, asked the Minister about the local schemes last night and I spent six minutes talking about them. Again, that issue is at the top of my list.

Deputy Ring made a good case for Fine Gael here tonight but I have to remind him that all of the money he is talking about which is being given out has been collected off the taxpayers and off the people who are out early in the morning and who are paying through the nose for gallons of diesel and litres of petrol for fuel to try to keep going. There are paying exorbitant taxes. The Government has angered many people in our county who cannot get planning permission, which is the basic right just to put a roof over your head. Much of Kerry is now a no-go area as far as getting planning permission is concerned. I have asked on several days to have this examined and to control the Planning Regulator because he has our county development plan ruined. Many people just cannot get planning permission and they have paid for it, even though they have paid almost a third of taxes, VAT and levies to build their own house, which they are not being allowed to do.

The Government has people driven mad about this rewetting and culling cows, and it has no appreciation at all. For the Green Party, however, it is wagging the tail and it has no appreciation of our farmers and of what they are going through. The Government will not consider the amount of carbon emissions farmers are already sequestering and is saying this will not be measured until 2027.

Tourism is adversely affected because the Government brought in all of these refugees but it did not get any place for them except hotels.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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I thank the Deputy and call Deputy Collins.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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The sewerage scheme in villages is being given no attention at all.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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I have to be respectful to-----

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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My time was not up at all when you interrupted me. You are Labour and you have no other-----

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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I am being respectful to the Deputy's colleagues. I am in the Chair.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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You started at me and I have ten seconds left.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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6 o’clock

I do not make the order of the day.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I had ten seconds left. You will not bully me.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Allow me to speak please. I was watching the clock assiduously and I was absolutely fair to everyone.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I can read the time too.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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I will not stand accused of being unfair to speakers.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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You are butting in to me when I had ten seconds to go.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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I am making time for the Deputy's colleague on the Deputy's slot. I am being fair to the Deputy's colleague.

Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
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I heard the Minister's opening speech and I had to pinch myself as the rural Ireland I live in is totally different from the one the she spoke about. Yes, there are a few green shoots but they are few. Funding for west Cork has been little and spread well apart.

Our roads in west Cork are totally under-funded. Two bypasses in Bandon lie undone for decades. A bypass of Inishannon and Bantry lies undone. Not alone are these bypasses not being built, the main roads are starved for funding to be repaired. Rural living must include farmers and fisheries and the Government has attacked both of these activities in every way it can. If it carries on what it is doing with the culling of cows, it is set to wreck rural Ireland. Planning permission for our young people is a no-go in west Cork. It does little good for the Minister to mention it in her speech when her Government is ensuring that young people do not get planning in their local areas for one reason or another due to Government planning policies. Roads are not the only disaster we have in west Cork.

Last Monday night, I was at a meeting in Shannonvale, near Clonakilty, where there is raw sewage in the community garden that was donated to the community. It is also making its way down to the main water scheme in Clonakilty. A new sewerage scheme is desperately needed there. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, visited last year and it was on a list last year. It is not on any list this year. The community finds itself in an astonishing situation. West Cork is sick of Ministers and leaders of parties coming down, waving and blowing kisses but delivering nothing. Last year, we had Deputy Leo Varadkar come to my local villages of Goleen and Schull. In the first village he stood in, pictures were taken of him outside a post office that was closed three weeks previously and will never open again. The next place he arrived was the harbour in Schull. It is a fantastic, beautiful place. What did he do? He took more photos. That is the place for which a fabulous rural regeneration project was refused by the Fine Gael Government even though the committee was brought upstairs in the Dáil and promises were made. I accept that was before the Minister's time. A week later, a struggling Fine Gael Deputy's constituency got the money instead.

We have a serious number of issues in rural Ireland that need to be looked at. The All-Island Research Observatory, AIRO, report, which was an independent report, proved that in County Cork. Also, I hear that the IDA is selling the business park it had in Skibbereen. That is a scandalous situation. It is as good as saying to us, it is wiping its hands clean of any jobs being given to the people of Skibbereen, Bantry and the rest of west Cork.

Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I congratulate the Minister on how she is leading her Department. She is doing a great job. She has been to County Clare many times and she has been a good friend to the county by providing plenty of funding. In particular, I am delighted to see our digital hubs now enabling people to work in high-tech, smart and pharmaceutical companies in Dublin, but be domiciled in County Clare. They can nip down to the local village to work remotely and be connected to a global market and global network of colleagues.

I would love Fianna Fáil to have taken on the Ministry for Rural and Community Development. We should have had it. However, Deputy Humphreys is in the job and is doing a good job. Her colleagues are laughing but perhaps it is something that should be up for discussion.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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You will not get rid of me now. There will be no surrender here.

Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I think Deputy Ring is also mad to get his hands on that Ministry.

I will make a few points. Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, stepped in recently with respect to the Clare County Development Plan, which is in a state of flux at the moment. TII stated that there should be no planning permission granted for one-off houses on national and regional roads. That makes perfect sense most of the time, but not in a county like County Clare. West of Ennis, are the N67, N68 and N85. Pretty much every inch of roadway west of Ennis is designated as a regional or national road. It becomes unworkable when we think of villages such as Connolly, Inch or larger settlements such as Liscasey. They can now no longer grow. The rule heretofore was that decisions were made on a case-by-case basis. Many planning applications were correctly thrown out because it was unsafe to build in certain locations. However, now we have a blanket ban. While the issue may not fall under the responsibility of the Minister's Department, she needs to be a defender of the policy to let each application be gauged on its merits, on a case-by-case basis. If it is unsafe to build, the application should be refused. If it is safe, let us entertain it. Let us at least look at that application. If we come down on the issue with one hard rule, it denies many people west of Ennis and in the north of our county the opportunity to build and live rurally. The ability to live rurally and of rural communities to thrive and succeed should be the essence of the Minister's Department.

The other matter I will mention is the backlog in An Bord Pleanála. I recently said to the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, that it would be a great idea for files from certain counties to be reviewed in others. For example, the files from County Monaghan could be sent to County Clare, the files from County Clare could be sent to County Wexford and so on, so that files are assessed by skilled, highly-qualified planning technicians in other counties. An Bord Pleanála could then ratify them as normal. At the moment the backlog of files awaiting assessment and awaiting sign-off at An Bord Pleanála level is simply unworkable. We have resources in the local authorities. The idea is somewhat akin to the leaving certificate oral examinations in which an examiner comes from outside the county, assesses and the result is ratified by the State Examinations Commission. That should be looked at. In the interests of transparency, I have to state on the record that I have a planning file before An Bord Pleanála.

The pilot rural sewerage scheme that is being led by the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and the rural water schemes must be key to realising the potential of Housing for All. We can talk about over-shop living and Croí Cónaithe and all the other initiatives. Affordable housing and the accelerated delivery of social housing are important, but until villages have a public infrastructure for sewerage and water, they cannot fulfil the requirements for new development. That needs to be led.

Others have made the points about the local improvement scheme. I was a councillor for 16 years before I was elected to this House. It is obvious year-on-year that while the budget allocation to County Clare and other counties is generous, it is only the tip of the iceberg for what it is possible to do in a calendar year. Roads need to be maintained every ten years in order to keep them in good condition.

On the herd cull, I culled a short-term cow last week because she was 13 years old, lame and unwell. That is the type of animal that has traditionally been culled. We should not cull a good national herd. We will live to regret it many years from now.

Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party)
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I note the Rural Independent Group left the Chamber together a few moments ago. I note the absence of their colleague and my county colleague, Deputy Richard O'Donoghue because he has fallen ill. I send my best wishes to Deputy O'Donoghue and his family.

The Rural Independent Group spoke about the Green Party being anti-rural Ireland. I have to say that is absolutely, totally and categorically untrue. Our party has a passion for rural Ireland, for sustaining life in rural Ireland and for sustaining our young people in employment and activity in rural Ireland. Those who purport to represent rural Ireland much too often do not act in its best long-term interests. Far too frequently, the lens through which some perceive rural Ireland is defined by short-term thinking. Much of the debate we heard today is based on short-term thinking. The type of approach that is rooted in the notion of maintaining the status quooverlooks the risks associated with such a short-sighted approach. What some claim to be in the interests of rural Ireland are short-term solutions based on the keep-doing-what-we-are-doing mentality that continues to ignore the challenges of climate and environmental collapse and the risks they pose to the future of rural Ireland. We must acknowledge, collectively, in these Houses that the complexities of our rural communities and the challenges they face, require forward-thinking and long-term solutions. If this debate is anything to go by, we are clearly at cross purposes in this Chamber.

Our party believes with some justification that to sustain life, growth and prospects in rural Ireland, we need to look at planning through the long-term lens. The perceived quick fixes like one-off housing or building new homes on the periphery of our towns and villages without easy access to the local school, the post office or the pub only cause long-term challenges. Dispersed settlement leads to families living farther and farther away from town centres and one by one the services start to decline and close.

The local shop closes first, next is the pub, followed by the post office. Before you know it, there are not enough children to keep the primary school open. This is a trend that we need to reverse with progressive, long-term and sustainable rural policies.

The funding that is being provided under the town and village renewal scheme places a strong emphasis on projects that tackle vacancy and dereliction by bringing landmark town-centre buildings back to life. I commend the Minister on the leadership she has shown in this area in recent years and the Green Party is supportive of her efforts; well done to her. The way to enable our rural areas to grow and prosper is by making it possible that the vast majority of development happens within the existing footprint of these rural areas. Our towns can be the engines of our rural economy, and the centres of a rural society that is strong, integrated and resilient.

In recent weeks, we have witnessed an incredible display of short-termism in this House, and especially in Europe, in the debates on the EU nature restoration law. We have seen politicians railing against restoring nature with dangerously misleading rhetoric. Our ecosystems are degrading and just this morning the Environmental Protection Agency issued the water quality report with alarming results. The long-term solutions are hard but necessary. I implore colleagues in this House to take the long-term view, including colleagues in government and in opposition. In that way, we will secure the future of rural Ireland.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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For the sake of transparency and lest there be any complaints, there were six minutes left in the slot so I took my discretion to divide it between the two remaining speakers.

Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak to the House on the issue of rural development as a Deputy representing one of the most rural parts of Ireland but one of the most successful parts of Ireland in attracting Government and Department funding in recent years. In 1999, I was elected as a member of Roscommon County Council and at that time, the only funding the local authority could rely on was the then Department of the Environment and Local Government, and money was thin on the ground.

I want to acknowledge the changes that came in recent years, which began through the likes of Deputy Ó Cuív, who introduced the CLÁR programme. It then took on pace when Deputy Ring, as Minister of State, expanded the programmes. The Deputy eventually became the first person to hold the position of Minister for Rural and Community Development in Cabinet. I acknowledge our current Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, who recognised the need to give the area of rural development its own Department with a full Minister. Deputy Ring can be proud of his record from 2016 to 2020 and of the funding he was able to deliver across so many schemes. These delivered deep into some of the smallest and most rural communities in Ireland. Bringing us up to present day, the development and groundwork done by her predecessor only accelerated the ambition of the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, to deliver even more across rural communities.

I want to focus on my constituency and tell the House of the difference this funding has made to so many community facilities, including magnificent: playgrounds; sports fields; community centres; greenways; blueways; new footpaths; public lighting schemes; car parks; street scapes; and recreation parks. I could go on but I do not have the time. The Minister's Department has invested €41.8 million in County Sligo and €54.9 million in Leitrim since 2017. That is nearly a record €100 million. I want to highlight is that the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, is in favour of smaller and weaker counties like Leitrim, Sligo, Roscommon and others. If it was depending on population numbers, they would be at the bottom of the list in terms of funding.

I highlight what the funding of these projects means on the ground. My hometown of Boyle, for example, has seen a huge number of projects receive moneys from the RRDF, the town and village scheme and CLÁR. Derelict buildings have been problematic but in the coming months the old Royal Hotel will become a bright new building in the centre of the town and provide a landing space for start-up businesses and exhibition space. The Minister came down and saw that site before and after. That riverside promenade and civic space will make a great difference and completely transform the riverside location in the heart of the town. Down the road, we need to look at towns like Boyle that just do not have hotels and where developers will not build hotels. Maybe the local authorities could help to build a hotel in such locations. A hotel is social infrastructure. A town without a hotel is a town without a soul. That is something we need to look at.

Moneys from the RRDF have made a huge difference. They helped Leitrim County Council purchase the former MBNA building in Carrick-on-Shannon. That is one of the best strategic decisions for that region in a lifetime. The build cost of that campus is estimated at close to €44 million, and it is now in the ownership of the local authority at a lost of less than €6 million. The county council has a fund of close to €3 million to allow the expansion, recalibration and refurbishment of the campus, with the potential to bring 500 jobs over the next three to four years. This will happen. I thank the Minister for showing interest in the project. In Sligo, tourism is an important and growing sector. In recognition of this strategy funding for the Yeats Trail is an example I want to highlight. The Minister was there and the Yeats Trail visits 14 sites throughout the county that have an association with William Butler Yeats and his work. The new trail complements the Wild Atlantic Way and will help attract visitors to the region. The project received an investment of €500,000.

The Minister has continued to fund these important schemes, and that is much appreciated by local representatives. Her Department may have one of the smallest budgets, but it invests its money wisely. I conclude by saying keep it up Minister. Rural Ireland, north Roscommon, south Donegal, Sligo and Leitrim are feeling the benefit. I know it and I thank the Minister for the interest she has in smaller and less populated areas, giving them the leg up they richly deserve and appreciate.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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We move to Deputy Fitzmaurice, who is sharing time with Deputies Connolly and Pringle.

Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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I am glad of the opportunity to speak on the Government’s rural development policy. This is an area I am particularly interested in coming from a rural constituency and knowing my constituency’s potential. Nobody can dispute that the natural beauty of the west coast, and particularly of Donegal, is unmatched. The area has so much to offer and so much untapped potential and I am glad the Government has finally begun to recognise this. I acknowledge the Minister was up there last week and spent a couple of days in the beautiful county and was able to go around and open projects that were given money. It highlights that more needs to be done. The Minister would not expect me to say anything else.

The Our Rural Future: Rural Development Policy document is an impressive read. It covers many areas and offers great ideas on how to revitalise our rural communities but anyone reading this would think the Government is doing fantastic work. It is doing work but those living in rural communities know that more needs to be done. Tellingly, we are two years from the publication of this five-year policy but we are still nowhere near any of these policies being implemented. I wonder whether there was even an intention to implement them in the first place given that the key deliverables are extremely vast and far-reaching for even the most ambitious of governments. It seems that this is yet another Government policy document full of empty promises. I would rather a weaker policy document if it reflected the Government's actual priorities. At least it would give us something to work with.

What rural communities need most is not words, but full and proper investment. I want to take this opportunity to call on the Government to invest further in the rural regeneration and development fund. I welcome that this fund is contributing to Killybegs 2040, a significant regeneration project in my home town, which forms a part of Project Ireland 2040. This project will make a significant difference to the town of Killybegs and those living there who have experienced a really difficult downturn in the last two decades. The project will provide a civic space in Killybegs, as well as a digital hub for the many who have chosen to move to the town, and surrounding rural areas, to work remotely. This will undoubtedly help unlock Killybegs full potential but that alone is not enough. Further investment into the town and the county is needed as well. However, another problem was reported to me where employers are pulling employees back to work on-site. This puts remote workers in a very precarious situation and will deter employees from making the move to rural communities.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I rarely disagree with my colleague, Deputy Pringle, but he has got it wrong about Donegal being beautiful.

Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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It is way ahead of Galway anyway.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Now, now.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Not to mention Galway city.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this. I have the privilege of representing a very varied community from the Aran Islands, Inisbofin, Connemara, Galway city, right down south Mayo.

The sterile debate between rural and urban is very worrying for me. It is boring but it is also worrying and dangerous in creating a divide where we all need to be together to face the challenges that affect all of us from housing to climate change.

This is a five-year policy. One could not but praise this document. However, now we are two and a half years through it. It contains 150 commitments with no times for any of those to be achieved. The Minister, and her predecessor, have done many good things and it was a very good decision to set up the Department. Let me get the good wishes out the way, and then look at what is not being done because there are 150 commitments without a time set out. The biggest difficulty for me is that there is no rural proofing. I understand there are pilot projects under way around that but, like poverty proofing, this document is only as good as where it has been rural proofed. Yesterday, or maybe Monday, I was at a three-hour meeting where Galway got its first county manager in nine years. The county manager in Galway has been acting but we have finally got a manager. We got a fantastic presentation from all the directors but I was struck by the variation. Some towns benefitted and some did not. I had a particular interest in Connemara and its absence from the presentations was notable. Look at Carraroe where raw sewage is pouring into the bay. Carraroe is in the heart of the Gaeltacht, i gcroílár na Gaeltachta. You cannot develop it without a sewerage facility. It has been on the cards for years but Uisce Éireann has it in the wrong place and it will not happen.

Then there is housing. There are some very good initiatives all over County Galway but let us look again at Connemara and Ceantar na nOileán. There are a number of places that are deserted and where the population is falling with no overall plan. The town and village renewal and all the other projects are brilliant ideas but who is rural proofing them? Who is seeing where they go? I do not believe that Carraroe, Carna or any of these towns in Connemara have ever benefitted from that scheme. I am only singling out some. The rural proofing is important as is balance.

Then there is the region. The Minister for Finance, or it might have been the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, I cannot remember which, took exception to this but in 2018 the European Commission downgraded the north-west region to a region in transition. In 2020 the European Parliament’s committee on regional development categorised it as a lagging region. I see huge potential in this but the implementation on the ground in a just, fair and sustainable way is the part that is very weak.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Deputy Fitzmaurice raised a matter of considerable concern to me. For some time, we have noticed some senior public servants and people from semi-State companies refusing to come before Oireachtas committees. I have made it abundantly clear that where compellability powers are sought by individual committees that I, for one, will support such powers being given. I would be taken aback if Ministers were refusing to come before Oireachtas committees. I will undertake to investigate that because if that has happened, it would be at odds with what I would see as being best parliamentary practice.

I will not have a debate with the Deputy on this.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Ah well.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I will talk to the Deputy offline. Please talk to me offline about that.

The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, never refuses to come in.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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No I do not. I am here a right bit.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Are either of the Ministers with you?

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputies for their contributions. It is clear that rural Ireland is a topic close to the hearts of all my colleagues here today. I know they share my passion and love for rural Ireland and its people and my determination to see it a bright and prosperous place in which to live, raise a family and to work.

I acknowledged at the outset that there are challenges in rural Ireland but huge progress has been made and there is an air of positivity and optimism, and I go around the country a lot. I will respond to some of the contributions in the time available to me.

On the plan, a significant number of commitments are either delivered or are under way and we do a progress report every six months. A number of Deputies have raised the north-west region. It has been placed 218th of 234 in regional competitiveness is only half the story. When you take all the indicators included in the report in the round, the north west is placed 115 of 232 regions which is a little above the EU average in overall competitiveness. The Westport to Castlebar road got €250 million. I think it will be opened tomorrow or Friday. That is a key investment in infrastructure in the region.

The 2018 designation is based on GDP per capitain the region and has been used to calculate European funding allocations for 2021 to 2027. I am not against that region getting targeted support. When I was in the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, I put in place a targeted fund specifically for the Border counties, including counties Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan, Monaghan and Louth. Many good projects were supported through a €30 million fund. I am not averse to a targeted fund for a specific region but I need up-to-date data. The stuff we are looking at here is 2018 data. I will work with my officials on that particular issue.

I heard Deputy Carthy's contribution when he was talking about PR stunts. He is an expert when it comes to PR. I have never seen him walk away from a microphone. In fact, I would say he would nearly swallow one if he could. I can tell you something else - the same boy is not so bad at standing in for photographs or trying to claim the credit for Government-funded projects. I would like to remind him that my Department and this Government is funding the development of the Ulster Canal, and that is in Clones in County Monaghan. Instead of talking waffle, it would suit him or Sinn Féin in the North of Ireland to put a bit of matched funding towards the Ulster Canal through the North. I would just like to put that on the record.

Deputy Michael Collins should talk to his brother, wherever he is. I had a great day with-----

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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Danny.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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-----Danny, his brother. He is the mayor of Cork. We had a great day going around opening projects. We were in Banteer.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Did he not bring Michael with him?

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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No, he did not. I did not see him.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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He did not turn up.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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By the way, the Deputy forgot to mention the Dursey cable car. He had plenty of talk about it when it was not working but it is working now. It was reopened last week by his brother. I am delighted to see the Dursey cable car is back up and running. It is very important. I would also like to say thank you to Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan because in fairness to the fella, he came to me about that issue, and we worked hard on it together. I just want to put that on the record too.

In fairness, I want to recognise the positive and constructive contributions from many of the Deputies this evening. The issue of the local improvement scheme, LIF, was raised with me. If I have extra money, Deputies can rest assured that I will be putting it into the lanes because I know what it is like to have lanes with holes that the milk or meal lorry cannot get up. I know all about that.

There was a common recognition of the huge level of funding going into communities and, indeed, community-based projects through schemes like the CLÁR programme, the town and village scheme, LEADER and the community centre fund. I want to recognise the work of the volunteers on the ground and say a huge thank you because we all know them. We could not do this work without the community volunteers who day in, day out put their heads above the parapet many times. They achieve a huge amount. I really want to say a huge thank you to them.

My policy has always been to support the bottom-up approach. I see my role as Minister to help communities realise their ambition for their area. That is a number one priority. It is seeking to help people on the ground have a better quality of life with more jobs and more people living and working in rural Ireland. Deputies raised a number of issues beyond the remit of my Department. Our Rural Future is a whole-of-government policy, and I will be taking up the issues with the relevant Departments and Ministers in due course.

Finally, I want to recognise that our Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, set up the Department of Rural and Community Development in 2017 as a stand-alone Department. He appointed Deputy Ring as the first Minister. I acknowledge the great work of Deputy Ring during his tenure in the Department. It is my honour to build on the foundations he laid. I am glad to hear that we got through this whole debate without one person saying rural Ireland is dying. I can tell Members it is alive and well and that was a tired old narrative. It does not reflect the reality on the ground. What is more, it does an injustice to the community groups who are working so hard to make their areas a better place. I will leave it at that. As I said, rural Ireland is a better place to invest, work, live and raise a family.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister, Deputy Humphreys. I was going to say, a Cheann Comhairle, one would want to be a very brave man or woman in this House to take on that woman after that. I will certainly not be standing up and having a go at her based on that because all my projects to which I will refer to will probably go up in flames.

I want to acknowledge the role the Minister has played in my constituency. I thank her on behalf of the constituency. I even want to thank her on behalf of the people who castigate her in this House because they always arse their way into a photograph when she is visiting and claim credit for something they had nothing at all to do with.

In that context, between the town and village scheme, outdoor recreation, rural regeneration and the CLÁR programme, more than €11.5 million has been given to projects in places like Glen Rua, Athea, Oola, Templeglantine, Newcastle West and other places. However, the Minister's Department is not the only Department dealing with rural Ireland. My Department, the Office of Public Works, OPW, agus an Roinn Turasóireachta, Cultúir, Ealaíon, Gaeltachta, Spóirt agus na Meán freisin have a very important role in this. Previous Deputies referred to what was not going on in their constituencies. They should refer to the stuff goes on in their constituencies as well because the towns of Bandon and Clonakilty in west Cork, for instance, and Ennis have all been protected in the last number of years since I was appointed Minister of State. That has been completed, and since 2020, 2,350 properties in this country have been protected from flooding, with a further number of properties to be protected in places like Glashaboy, Springfield, Whitechurch, Cois Abhainn in County Mayo and elsewhere.

Deputies from all over the country and all sides of the House always come to me with regard to minor works. The Office of Public Works has allocated more than €10 million to local authorities for small projects everywhere. I thank Deputy Fitzmaurice for his positive comments with regard to the Office of Public Works during his contribution. That makes an awful difference in the lives of people all over the country.

In addition, we work with the Minister, Deputy Humphreys's Department with regard to former Garda stations, for instance. I will give Deputies an indication of some of the ones we have put to use through funding we received from the Minister. Ballinskelligs is now being used by Coiste Forbartha na Sceilge. Mulranny in County Mayo is being used by Mulranny community futures association. Toormakeady in County Mayo is being used for Forbartha Thuar Mhic Éadaigh Teo. Beaufort in County Kerry is being used by the community council and there are a number of others being used as well. Deputy Feighan who was in the Chamber a while ago, and I would like mention Dromahaire and Keshcarrigan in County Leitrim. I acknowledge and thank those local authorities we have worked with in that respect.

In the context of our visitor heritage attractions, again, we worked with the Department of Rural and Community Development on this. Last year, 15 million people visited OPW heritage sites across the country. These are not located in Dublin. They are located all over the country. Deputies come to me every day to ask for further investment. An example of that was last year when we finished a €3 million investment in the Blaskets in County Kerry. There was €2.6 million for the Céide Fields in Ballycastle in County Mayo and €700,000 for Roscrea Castle in County Tipperary, which will open shortly.

Maidir le mo ról mar Aire Stáit ag an Roinn Turasóireachta, Cultúir, Ealaíon, Gaeltachta, Spóirt agus Meán, beidh mé i gCathair Saidhbhín amárach agus beidh plean teanga an bhaile á chur in iúl ag an am sin. Beidh suas le €80,000 á cheadú agam sa bhaile. Mar shampla eile, beidh suas le €130,000 ag dul don Chumann Lúthchleas Gael i nGaoth Dobhair i nDún na nGall.

These are just small examples of the work we are doing in the Office of Public Works and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media in collaboration with Údarás na Gaeltachta. People like Deputy Connolly will be very familiar with the work of Údarás na Gaeltachta. I acknowledge the very positive words she said previously around the work of Údarás na Gaeltachta, but that can only be done in conjunction with work on which the Department of Rural and Community Development is leading.

Everybody here claims to represent a rural constituency. I have news for people in this Chamber. I represent the most rural because the largest town in my constituency has 7,000 people. The constituency is approximately 70 miles wide. We do not have a big city even though we are near Limerick. We have a very disparate population base.

I have been a public representative for 20 years and, as Deputy Feighan said a while ago, we used to be begging for money from Government Departments to do small projects. Now, it is clearly stated that it is first up, best dressed. It is up to local authorities and local authority members, in principle, to get projects animated, so that the Minister can fund them.

The Minister is an excellent colleague and someone I really appreciate working beside. I would caution those Deputies who say that rural Ireland has nothing other than problems. I live very happily in a very rural constituency and in a very rural community, and I am embedded in it. It really breaks my heart when I hear people running it down in this Chamber rather than coming up with ideas that would work and that would be far better for them and for the people they claim to represent.