Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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67. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development to provide an update on the way her Department is implementing the published guidelines on "rural proofing". [40853/24]

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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I wish to raise with the Minister of State the issue of rural proofing. It is something I understand the Minister said last year would be published. The question refers to the "published guidelines" but I understand that they are not yet published and are still in draft form. I have had a read through them. We have many areas of the country where there is a decline in population and rural parishes under pressure. We need investment and to ensure that with regard to anything that is being done by the State, and any new policies that are brought in, whether it is around infrastructure, health services or whatever, that those services look to these rural areas and ensure they get the kind of investment they require to be able to develop and flourish.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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Rural proofing is an approach to help ensure that the development of major policy initiatives are viewed through a rural lens to take full consideration of rural perspectives and issues. Rural proofing is not a policy or a model. Rather, it is a process to be undertaken that leads to better policies.

Last year, my Department published a body of research on rural proofing which is available online. Following this, and in order to help develop guidance material for use by policymakers and practitioners, a number of rural proofing pilots were undertaken across Government, on the national planning framework review, the development of the new sustainable tourism policy, the new national hubs strategy, and the new social enterprise strategy which was published in July.

To help complete our final report and in order to test our proposals, officials engaged with an OECD team of international experts in rural development in September. This was as part of the Department’s hosting of the OECD’s mission visit to review Irish rural policy, a study which was commissioned by the Department. I am happy to say that this has helped officials to refine proposals and I am advised that the intention is to shortly bring forward this report, and more importantly, guidance in relation to rural proofing and items such as the challenge of defining rural areas as an important first step in ensuring rural needs are taken account of; the availability of key statistics in relation to rural areas; the importance of meaningful and early consultation with rural communities as part of policy development; and how to ensure that rural issues are considered as a central part of policy development.

I am confident that this approach will serve as a practical and user-friendly tool for Government Departments to ensure that rural issues are fully taken account of in the development of major policy initiatives. To cut a long story short, the document will be published and available quite soon.

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome that. We need to see progress on all of this. There are many areas where we can see problems with rural areas being left behind and not getting the kind of investment they require. The glaring example, for those of us who live in the west of Ireland, is certainly the western rail corridor. For years, we have been told it is going to be developed and yet, they continually look at population areas quite close to the rail line and not a broader area.

I live quite near Dromad in County Leitrim. There is a railway station there, and people travel 30 km or 40 km to go to that railway station. Yet, when they look at the catchment area for a rail line, they only look at 5 km or 10 km from it. It is ridiculous. It should be recognised that it covers a much wider area and is one of the key pieces of infrastructure that would develop the west of Ireland, if it was put in place.

Of course, one of the biggest problems we have with rural proofing is the Planning and Development Bill, which went through here last night and was guillotined. The Government pushed that through and there is nothing in it to do anything for rural areas. To be of some small assistance to the Minister of State when it comes down to the micro, the CSO figures, when they look at each area, look at parishes. Any parish where there is less than 30 people per square kilometre is in terminal decline. There are hundreds of those parishes across the length and breadth of Ireland that require investment. They need to get some leg-up or their schools are going to close and their communities are going to vanish.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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The Government's objective is to have balanced regional development across the country, and the national planning framework sets out the Government's objective for this with 50% of population growth targeted outside our major cities. The NPR is currently under review by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Our Rural Future, the Government's rural development plan, supports the vision for balanced regional development, including in the northern and western region.

On the planning Bill, one thing that will help is large infrastructure projects, including rail lines. My party would certainly like to see the rail line expanded to the north and west of the country as well. I would also flag the progress with broadband that has opened up things for people to move back to rural Ireland. I recall some data from Pobal post Covid which showed there was a movement from urban areas to the west of the country, at least up to 2022. What has happened in the last two years I cannot point to but I will point to the expansion of Local Link services across the country as well. There is a long way to go on them but we have had a good two years on the expansion of Local Link nationally.

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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On the issues of planning, and the Minister of State mentioned the big infrastructure projects, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, has said he will not build the western rail corridor from Sligo and Collooney right the way down to Galway. That is a huge problem, and this is a Green Minister telling us he wants to invest in rural Ireland. It is not happening. It is not happening in our road infrastructure either or in many other areas.

I was at the ploughing earlier this year, and many came in to talk to us in the tent. The two big issues they talked about were rural planning and housing. People cannot get houses for their families. Houses in the west of Ireland and outside of urban areas are somewhat cheaper but then the services are not there. They do not have adequate health, GP or education services. All of these things have to be rural-proofed. I often hear it said that there has to be investment in rural areas but it simply is not happening, and we need to see some policy put in place where, if you are going to bring out guidelines, those guidelines have to have teeth. They have to make sure that when policy is being developed by all the different Departments, that they have to look to rural proofing to ensure people who live in rural areas do not just get an equal chance but get extra because they have been left behind for so long.

While it can be said that things are growing in some areas and people are moving out to the west or rural areas, the reality is that the country, as it develops, is developing more along the east coast and less on the west.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I would underline the national broadband roll-out and the Local Link expansion. On the broader issue of rural proofing, while I think this document is going to help when it is published, one of the strongest things we have in Government to help us rural-proof things is that we have a Department of Rural and Community Development. What that means, obviously, is there is a senior Minister at the table when issues come up. More importantly, in the background, what a lot of us do not see is that every Government memo is circulated to each Department and our officials have an opportunity to input the rural perspective into every significant Government decision. That happens in the background all the time. The Department was only established in 2017 but we are working on not just years but decades of Dublin-centric development. That is going to take time but the fact that we have a Government Department and a senior Minister at the table fighting for rural Ireland with regard to every decision is probably the most effective piece of rural proofing that we need to continue into the future.