Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

This Bill seeks to ensure that regard be had by public bodies to the desirability of reducing socioeconomic and other inequalities suffered by those in rural Ireland, to provide for the carrying out of rural impact assessments in respect of measures that are likely to have a significant socioeconomic impact or effect on rural Ireland and to provide for related matters. It is designed to ensure that the decline of rural Ireland cannot continue unabated and that any measure undertaken by a public body will have to be vetted to ensure it does not discriminate against rural areas. The programme for Government states, and it is mentioned in the Government's amendment to the Bill, that the Action Plan for Rural Development takes a whole-of-Government approach to "Develop a new and effective rural proofing model which would ensure that rural development issues are considered in the decision-making processes of all Government Departments". That is the intent behind the Bill.

The Taoiseach and the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Humphreys, tell us how much they care about rural communities, how the recovery is going and how things are progressing. The lip-service might be very good but there is little action on the ground. Many Deputies talk about Ireland in a post-boom context, but the so-called Celtic tiger never stalked the rural land of this nation or roared in the hills and valleys of the parts of the island far removed from the big cities. A prime example of the problem is the latest proposal from the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Denis Naughten, to roll out rural broadband. Nobody in country areas believes that broadband will be delivered. They simply do not believe it because of the failures and repeated broken promises of the past. The latest proposal allows the commercial service providers to cherry-pick the most desirable, accessible and thus the most profitable areas of the country to provide a service. For the rest of us, it is a case of "live horse and you'll get grass". That is the reality for most people in rural Ireland.

The rural school bus service is another example. The rule introduced to provide that school bus services are to the nearest school totally disrupted a system that was working fine. It denied bus services to children all over the country. People in the Department have told me that they did not anticipate the effects this would have on rural schools and rural areas. Some children in families get the bus and others are refused because of the poorly devised rules. That is the reality for families living in rural Ireland.

Another example is the ambulance service. In many rural areas the service is scant, if it is there at all. In addition, the time an ambulance has to get to an accident or incident is well outside the 19 minute target. For many it is an hour at best due to the location of the ambulance centres and the bad roads the ambulances must travel. As a result, some people with medical conditions have moved to bigger towns to be close to hospitals. That is the reality for sick people living in rural Ireland. The decision to remove cancer services from Sligo has had an impact on thousands of families. For years they have been travelling to Galway from across the north west, over long distances and on poor roads, in order to attend appointments. This health policy decision took no account of the trauma and distress its implementation would have on people living a long distance from Galway in rural areas with already poor medical services and infrastructure. The Bill would force such a policy change to be assessed against the impact it would have on people living in rural Ireland.

The Government's proposed amendment seeks to block the Bill and revert to the status quo. The status quois simply not working, as can be seen with the continual withdrawal of services, as well as post offices, hospitals and so forth. The complaint in the Government's amendment regarding the implications it would for a money Bill is quite strange, as my proposal is to monitor the impact of existing budgets on rural areas. There was no boom in many rural areas except in property prices, which brought its own legacy of misery to many parts of the country and certainly to my native County Leitrim, which had the distinction of having more ghost estates than any other county in proportion to its size and population. It is ironic to hear people in Fianna Fáil, the overseers of the building boom, talk about Government inaction on rural Ireland. I hope the Fianna Fáil Deputies will support this Bill to ensure that the neglect they complain about so eloquently can be halted for once and for all.

Yesterday, I attended the meeting of the transport committee where representatives of chambers of commerce from across the midlands and the west lobbied to have the N4 and N5 roads upgraded to motorways. The economy in that region is suffering and potential is being lost due to the disadvantage of single lane roads on these national routes. Parts of them are very dangerous. The road between Castlebaldwin and Collooney features dozens of white crosses to represent the road deaths on that stretch of narrow road. That is the reality.

Another issue is the work activation schemes that are brought forward by the Government. They do not take account of people living in rural areas who have to travel long distances and the costs involved in that. The JobPath programme, which already has many problems, is a typical example. People in rural areas are expected to travel three and four times a week to JobPath centres and get no expenses for doing so. If they do not turn up, their benefits are cut. It is a process that simply does not work for people living in rural Ireland.

Rural areas have been ignored for long enough. It is time to deal with this issue. During the boom, work in agriculture was regarded as a Cinderella option. It was the last option for many people when things were good. Young people left rural areas to seek high technology jobs in cities or abroad. There are very few such jobs for graduates in rural areas because businesses do not have the infrastructure to locate outside the big cities. The farming community has seen the cycle of boom and bust previously and is experienced, over generations of resilience on the land, in persevering through tough times and coming out the other side.

The policy of afforestation in rural Ireland is destroying rural communities because when large tracts of land are planted it is a permanent change of land use which requires no labour input bar a week or two every few years. With no work involved, communities die.

The farming community is fighting the closure of veterinary laboratories in Sligo, Kilkenny, Limerick and other areas. This is in the context of the Government talking about maintaining rural services. None of it makes sense, and that is why we are here today. Rural Ireland cannot be neglected until it turns into a theme park to be visited by tourists who can marvel at the greatness of old Ireland. Rural Ireland is not an area that can be covered by forestry in order to provide some kind of green lung for western Europe. Rural Ireland is a potentially rich and healthy environment in which to live and raise children and make a living. That is what we need to see happen.

Our agrifood sector is still the backbone of the economy, even with the lack of support which should by now have made it a foundation on which to build a vibrant and thriving rural economy. Rural Ireland is not just about farmers. The social fabric of Ireland is still tightly woven around agriculture and its auxiliary activities. People who live in rural areas, even if they are not engaged in farming, like to live near where farming is taking place around them. It is part of what we are in a real and present sense. This is the lifestyle that most of us know or are just one generation removed from.

That is not to say we are romanticising the hard graft and hardship that goes along with life in farming, the land or working with livestock. Country people are far from romantic when dealing with the realities of their lives. They and I know, as does the Government, that without the necessary infrastructure, technology, investment and transport given the decline in its population poverty will increase all over rural Ireland.

The Government is not supporting rural Ireland. Instead, it is eroding the infrastructure, services and commerce which existed in the past. It goes against every tenet of progressive and environmental policy in a world running out of fossil fuels to cut back on public transport. That is happening everywhere. Such a policy forces everyone who needs mobility to work or study to own a car.

The closure of post offices, small rural schools, Garda stations and libraries and the withdrawal of public services and transport are the death knell for some areas. These are the kind of measures that the Rural Equality Bill will ensure could not happen without proper scrutiny of the effects and the justification of its implications in all rural areas. We want to ensure any policy that comes from any Department is rural-proofed to ensure rural Ireland does not suffer as a result. It is not about adding extra costs. Rather, it is simply ensuring that there is scrutiny.

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