Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim mo mhíle buíochas leis na finnéithe as teacht anseo inniu. Tá a fhios agam gur tháinig siad ó gach cearn den tír.

It is very clear that there are massive passions among the witnesses with regard to their presentations. There are also massive passions on this side of the table with regard to those. It is also very clear that great work has been done by different groups in the past, that there is great dysfunction in the process and that the latter is leading to the lack of necessary services. One of the main points I have taken from today's meeting is that there is an over-dependence in rural areas on a small number of sectors such as tourism and farming and that if there is a shock in those sectors, it means that those areas are over-exposed to those shocks and will be massively damaged by them in the future.

It is also very clear that there are a rake of opportunities that are not being harvested by the State in rural areas, for example, the fishing and renewable energy sectors or even place name branding. The likes of the Aran Islands and all of those different locations are nearly brand names in their own right and these brand names could travel internationally as far as products are concerned. There is also a shocking lack of connectivity among the Departments as they approach all of these issues. This leads to disconnection in the delivery of services on a local level and a scatter gun effect. Red tape and entrepreneurship in local areas are like oil and water. The two of them do not mix. If you want to scare off an entrepreneur, just bring red tape to them and they will quickly back off and not engage anymore.

It is clear that this debate between the committee and the witnesses is not over and we hope to continue it in the future. Some of the witnesses have very short futures if things do not change radically, so we will do our best to see whether we can contact the Department, ask the questions and push to see whether matters can be resolved. I thank all of the witnesses for attending. Their information will form part of our report. We will send an interim report to the Department in the next ten days, so this information will, hopefully, seep through into its thinking. We have a few small issues to discuss as our witnesses leave so we will suspend the meeting for three minutes.