Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister and his team are very welcome. I have learned much both from the report and from listening to the Minister. Allow me to tell the Minister about something that happened to me some years ago. I was asked to participate in a partnership near to the location of one of our supermarkets. It was because there was a jobs crisis, they were looking for work and I did some thinking before attending the first meeting. However, before I got a chance to open my mouth, I discovered that everyone else was expecting the Government to do something for them. Having listened to the Minister in the last few minutes and having heard of the duplication and multiplicity of organisations that are set up to do this, it is precisely what I listened to at that meeting. At the time, I said the supermarket we had in the area found it necessary to get someone from outside the area to clean its windows and that there was an opportunity for a window cleaner. A young man who was involved in the partnership set up a window-cleaning business and subsequently sold it on at the end of the year. He only had a bicycle, a bucket and a ladder but it was a joy to see someone setting up his own business, rather than being obliged to bring a window cleaner from another area. Someone else heard me make the point that even were the supermarket to run out, we would love to be able to provide fresh lettuce at 4 p.m. Consequently, someone else then set up a lettuce and cucumber growing business. Deputy Kyne mentioned the Showcase craft fair, which I also attended and it was a joy. I was so impressed by the number of individuals nationwide who are doing things.

The reason I mention this is there is almost a danger of the State telling people it is there to do something for them. I acknowledge this is neither the point being made by the Minister nor the intention. While the intention is to hold people's hands while they do things, everyone at the aforementioned meeting - until I spoke - originally had been suggesting the partnership should call on the Government and different agencies to come down and do things for them. How can one manage to sell the concept that people should do it themselves? There must be a way to do this and with this proliferation of different organisations, I wonder whether there is a danger that there almost is an expectation the Government will do it for people, rather than the other way around.

One other area for which I believe much can be done, is one the Minister also has mentioned, namely, agri-tourism. Many years ago, I was involved with a co-operative group called An Comhar Taisteal. It made a deal with CIE for a special rate whereby one could bring families to holiday on farms. These people generally were city dwellers who did not have the experience of living on a farm and they got a special deal to the nearest railway station, where the local farmer picked them up. Sometimes this was with horse and cart, sometimes with a tractor or whatever he or she had. In respect of the entire concept of people doing things for themselves, rather than having someone do it for them, the help of an organisation like CIE to transport those people to those areas was very helpful. In business, we used to joke about the number of things one should never believe. They included the cheque being in the post, assurances of love the morning after or whatever, but one was, "I am from head office and am here to help you". I would love to think there will be even greater pressure in the years ahead to avoid the selling of the concept, "I am from the Government and I am here to help you". I urge the Minister to find some way of having people able to say, "We can and must do it ourselves". While the Government will hold people's hands, will help them and will provide seed capital if needed, it should not give the impression that it is going to do it and there is some danger of this.

For the past three years, I have been involved with a programme on television which helps retailers around the country and it has brought me to places to which I had not been previously. One of the towns - it is really a crossroads - is called Rathcabbin in north County Tipperary, which really is in County Offaly because it is just north of the river, but it only has one shop and one pub - it is all the one - and it is run by one family. They were losing business to Portumna on one side and to Birr on the other side. All we did was to get the local people in the area to come to a meeting at which we told them they would not have this pub and shop unless they supported it. They had to do it themselves, even if all they did was to buy their cigarettes or newspapers there, as well as other items. While I do not encourage people to smoke, cigarettes and newspapers are the same price wherever one buys them and are not susceptible to price cuts. We told them to make sure they supported their local shop and pub. We also went down to Borrisokane and got local growers there to give local products to that shop in Rathcabbin. I believe the way it will succeed is through local people deciding they can do it themselves. It is when they recognise they will not survive if they call on someone else to do it for them but will survive if they can do it for themselves. I would have great hopes, were it possible to get across that message. The message coming from the different organisations should be they are not there to do things for people and while they can steer people in the right direction, people should not rely on the organisations to do it for them as they must do things for themselves.