Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Let me explain. I come from urban Ireland, down the road from here in Dublin 4. I went to Connemara, and on the site we purchased in 1975, 300 jobs were created. There are a lot of issues in rural Ireland that we are not dealing with realistically. The first issue I want raise is that of towns, villages and the hinterland, as if the rest is some kind of wasteland that we keep for the birds and the bees. Do we see rural communities as intrinsic communities within themselves? Just because people do not have big or small back gardens, that does not mean it is not just as valid a way of living as any other. Traditionally the Labour Party has been opposed to rural communities as I understand them - that is, the scattered community which lives in the townland and the parish - preferring to see everybody circled in a village.

The second issue is the absolute nonsense that the more people who live in the village, the more people you have for shops and schools. The total population in a given area is what determines the use of shops and schools. It makes no difference if they all live in the village or in the area. It makes no difference in terms of the numbers for the schools and shops. I believe it is important to have that debate. The spatial strategy people and the Labour Party people have tried to denude the Corofins and the Ballyheigues of this world. They have been trying to denude those rural areas and those one-off houses, and I think it is a big pity, because we know that in the scattered communities of rural Ireland we get exceptionally good social and educational outcomes.

Does the Government intend to increase the number of places on the rural social scheme? It is a very important scheme in rural Ireland for providing services. There is a massive lack of micro-infrastructure in rural Ireland. When I was a Minister there was a problem ensuring that the last remaining houses in Ireland that were not connected to a group water scheme or a mains scheme would be connected. We also dealt with small village sewerage schemes. Has the Minister of State any ideas about leveraging funds for micro-infrastructure? We have also had the demise of the local improvement schemes, which put roads into areas of houses where the local authorities never took over the roads. I also wish to ask about broadband. Everybody in urban Ireland is now getting 100 megabits per second, either through fibre optic or cable connections. Does the Government plan to bring fibre optic connections to every home?

Will the officials check what is the subsidy provided to Bus Éireann and Bus Átha Cliath on a per capitabasis? While one would expect economies of scale to be achieved in Dublin, I understand that, per capita, the grant to Bus Átha Cliath is four times higher than that provided to Bus Éireann. We then wonder why there are no services in rural areas. The withdrawal of bus services will result in job losses.