Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My first question is for both Údarás na Gaeltachta and the Western Development Commission. I live in a little village approximately 25 minutes drive from the periphery of Galway city. My perception is that Galway city is the primary driver of economic growth in that whole western region. I am sure most of us here share that opinion.

The údarás has been exceptionally successful. If we move beyond what might be described as the economic footprint of the city, past Athenry, Loughrea, Na Forbacha and An Spidéal and into the sparsely populated parts of our county, both west and east, companies have been convinced that a sparsely populated area is a perfectly adequate and acceptable place to locate. How has the údarás done this? I believe its experience of doing that in Connemara could be replicated in parts of east Galway that have yet to see any sort of economic recovery taking place.

My next question is also for both entities. This has the potential to be significantly politically sensitive, but I will discuss it anyway. There is now a proposal on the table to merge our two local authorities in Galway. In my opinion, this artificial construct that separates the city from the rest of the county is an inhibitor to the economic growth that can occur across the whole of the county, driven primarily by the presence of the city but artificially suppressed at this point in time because of the presence of two different local authorities. What is the delegates' opinion on the proposed merger?

A recently published report recommends the merging of the two local authorities. It does so predominantly for that reason, namely, there could be significant collaboration and sharing of expertise and resources across a whole county rather than the artificial construct that exists. For example, there is a huge amount of job creation happening in the city, but Parkmore is predominantly in County Galway. How do we get the exceptionally successful economic engine that is a city the size of Galway to drive economic regrowth in farther flung locations of our county? Is there an international model we could replicate?

I have a further question, perhaps two, for Mr. Brannigan. He makes a point about education that I find fascinating. He stated that the OECD has shown that investing and upskilling lower-skilled workers in rural regions has a greater impact on economic development than investing in increasing the number of highly-skilled workers in the region. Could he expand on that statement? What is meant by investing in increasing the number of highly-skilled workers if not investing in upskilling? Does this refer to bringing in workers from other locations? What is the distinction?

In the subsequent paragraph in his written submission, which is a fascinating paragraph, Mr. Brannigan states, "Numbers of self-employed grew ... strongly in the Western Region (31.1%) [between 2012 and 2016 in comparison with 7.2%] in the [whole] rest of the state". He goes on to state that 22.9% of all working people in the region are self-employed compared with just 15.2% in the rest of the State. That is fascinating. He expands on the statement by suggesting it is probably because there are relatively limited job options in rural areas that people have to create their own jobs. I think what we are doing here is tapping into the innate creativity of our people. They are showing that, given the right resources and supports, they can create not alone jobs for themselves but jobs for their neighbours and members of their local communities.

What does the western region possess that results in this statistical anomaly? Is it that necessity is the mother of invention? Perhaps it is. What can we do to further enhance this kind of job creation potential? Something unique is being tapped into there. Is there anything we can do? I know broadband is a huge issue. What Telegael and others have done with the creative industries out in the depths of Connemara with the right resources and infrastructure is fascinating. In terms of the creative industries across the whole of the rural western region, what is the potential and how do we support it? Are there any lessons to be learned from other locations in the world that are doing something similar?