Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I absolutely agree with the Deputy. It is about finding the correct mechanism to do it. I support the principle that they should get all the support they can because the local indigenous industries are creating jobs. Three or four jobs in a local community are worth 50 or 100 jobs announced in big towns. They make the difference.

We are investing in rural Ireland across the Government. There has been a 9% increase in the allocation for our local and regional roads. The Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, recently opened the sports capital programme, which has €30 million available nationwide. We all know how the sports capital programme benefits rural sports clubs across the country. The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Varadkar, has allocated an additional 500 places for the rural social scheme, which is in addition to the €7 million of the rural recreation programme coming from my Department. There is €40 million allocated for the Leader projects this year and I recently announced €9 million for the arts and culture capital scheme, which will support arts centres right across the country. There is much happening and the Action Plan for Rural Development is proof of a cross-Government commitment to support rural communities.

This committee asked us to act on the failure to develop a coherent rural development policy in Ireland, which can be in part explained by poor governance structures. The Commission for the Economic Development in Rural Areas noted that the White Paper on rural development published in 1999 was weak in terms of delivery structure rather than ideas, lacking ministerial leadership, resources, statutory underpinning, institutional performance and delivery mechanisms. This plan is pulling all of that together. It is about working together and making a difference to rural Ireland. When investors come along and google a particular area in which they want to invest, they want to see positive news coming from the area. If they see negative narratives from the location, they will not want to go there. We need to work together to promote rural Ireland. We are all rural Deputies and we want to showcase our areas. We want people to invest in rural Ireland.