Áine Collins (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and his officials. I welcome the report. It is great work and it is good to see a focus on rural areas.

We have had much talk in the committee about local enterprise offices, LEOs. I have not yet heard clarification on their new role. People have been giving out about local government structures but I welcome the fact that we will have a one-stop-shop and that people will know once and for all where to go to get information. I seek clarity on their role. In particular I would like to see more activity on the ground with a bottom-up approach in LEOs, as opposed to people having to go to them. They also do a lot of training, as does Skillnets. Perhaps we could have joined-up thinking in that regard.

In my constituency we have IRD and Ballyhoura Leader programmes. One is totally in favour of the change and the other is totally against it. That makes for interesting politics in my area. Leader programmes have done much good work. However, it is time for reform and a one-stop-shop approach. My main area of concern in the locality is that we have towns that are decimated. We have empty buildings and lots of communities that are making an effort. To follow on from the point that was made by a previous speaker, it is not about giving people money, they need nurturing. Committee members know how I feel about mentoring. If we could work on that it could help.

I spent yesterday with Fáilte Ireland discussing agritourism and rural tourism as opposed to areas that are well known. We examined how we could develop it. Fáilte Ireland’s remit is to be the Enterprise Ireland of tourism. It is all about getting people into the country. It will fall to communities and local authorities to develop local tourism. That could be considered by the Minister in his remit. I also encourage the Minister to examine co-operatives in rural towns. They cannot operate in a retail space given the costs involved. We must return to an older model of co-operatives. Perhaps we should encourage pilot projects in that regard.