Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 28 September 2016

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Regional Development, Rural Affairs, Arts and the Gaeltacht

Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 33 - Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs

2:15 pm

Photo of Michael RingMichael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the question of mountain rescue, the Minister is quite correct. They are looking for the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs to take that over, and I will. I shall explain why. The same thing happened in the previous Department which covered it, the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. Nobody would give them any funding. I put up a scheme, which I should not have done and I was advised by officials not to do it, but I did it because I felt that mountain rescue was entitled to support. At the time I gave them €3.5 million - I am open to correction on that figure - under the sports capital programme, even though technically it was not sports capital. A lot of walking, cycling and other sports facilities take place and the mountain rescue people would be there so I gave them some funding. It is an area I will look at again because I think they deserve support. They do a tremendous job and deserve to be supported. They do it in a voluntary capacity and they should have the equipment and whatever they need. I will certainly take it on and I will be looking at it for the new year.

The Deputy raised the work of the CLÁR programme since 2010.

I have to say this because the person responsible is here today: the CLÁR programme was one of the best schemes introduced for rural Ireland. We have not had one since 2010 and I am glad that has changed. I welcome the €3 million we have got for this year. Of course it is not enough money. I would love to get €20 million like Deputy Ó Cuív got in his day, but we will not be that lucky - they were the very good times. We do not have good times now. Anyway, I will be back in the Department trying to get as much as possible for a CLÁR programme for next year. I will I make my case to try to get the programme funded. The good news is that it has been opened again.

Deputy Ó Cuív referred to the rural recreation fund. Deputy Ó Cuív's county got €232,101, which was fair, out of €4.5 million. The sum related to the schemes applied for. In the case of Kerry County Council applications, anything that was valid was grant-aided. Last year the Department asked for submissions from local authorities. Officials went back to some of the local authorities again this year. Some of the local authorities had the work done in respect of the applications. Any local authority with a scheme that was valid and that fell under the criteria got grant-aided. We have gone back to local authorities again. We are asking them to come in with further submissions and we will have a further round in the coming weeks. Kerry got its fair share, as did every other county.

A number of parliamentary questions were tabled to me about counties that did not get funding. I had to answer one yesterday, and I was embarrassed when answering it for the Deputy. It would be hard for me to give money to any county that did not make an application and the county in question did not. Another county made two applications, one of which was invalid. I was accused by a Deputy of not giving funding for the other one but the job had been done by a local authority. We cannot grant-aid twice. We simply cannot do that.

I fully support Deputy Healy-Rae's comments on the local improvement scheme. He is 100% right. I want members to bring the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, before the committee and make the case. Deputy Healy-Rae is quite correct to say that when I was in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport the scheme was abolished. I got it back in the way that it is back now. Anyway, I am keen for Deputy Healy-Rae to ensure that he brings the Minister before this committee. Deputy Healy-Rae is quite correct about the people living in rural Ireland. I understand it better than Deputy Healy-Rae. Along with him, Deputy Ó Cuív and everyone else who lives in rural Ireland, I realise that the local improvement scheme is about the road up to the house or the road in and out of the main road. People living there are as entitled to have it as anyone else. We need to get funding put in place for it. The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport needs to look at getting that scheme up and running again. It worked well. Deputy Healy-Rae did not make this point, but people forget that these people pay their taxes, rates, water charges and whatever they are asked to pay. They also make a contribution towards that road as well. The scheme worked well and I support Deputy Healy-Rae 100%. I am asking the Deputy and this committee to bring in the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, to ensure funding is put in place for that scheme for next year.

If a crisis begins to develop with the local improvement schemes throughout the country, it is something I can look at in the context of the CLÁR programme. However, at the end of the day I have no wish to be doing the job of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport when it comes to putting funding into roads. As Deputy Ó Cuív knows, we need the CLÁR funding for many other projects in the programme that need to be subsidised and helped. We need to do that.

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