Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I listened to the debate in the Seanad. It was interesting that most of the people that spoke and were critical of the Bill never lived in rural Ireland. We are all for heritage and protecting the environment, but we have to live there as well. I live in a place where the biggest complaint I have all summer is that people will not be able to get up and down their roads as a consequence of growth. They are paying their taxes, including road tax. They want to be able to get to work and to get their children to school safely.

I want to take up an issue that the Chairman raised about rural towns and villages. He is quite correct. He mentioned An Post and post offices being closed. The biggest problem that we are faced with and that maybe the Chairman and others will face in the years ahead is that of broadband. We need broadband very badly, but it has an economic impact, since more people are buying from the Internet now. We are going to lose more shops and businesses because of the Internet. That is the problem with progress.

The Chairman talked about infrastructure. I will give a simple example. When I was Minister of State with responsibility for tourism, one of the greatest things that was introduced in this country was the Wild Atlantic Way. It was one of the greatest initiatives by any Government, and it has created jobs in tourism and brought people to rural Ireland who had not been there for many years. The infrastructure was there. Signage and promotion were needed, as well as for Government and Fáilte Ireland to take it seriously. With State agencies, local authorities, Fáilte Ireland and Government working together, that has turned out to be a tremendous success. Many thousands of jobs throughout this country have been created because of the Wild Atlantic Way. The Chairman talked about infrastructure and is quite correct. He talked about the negativity and positivity. I went to Ennis recently, since I was at a wedding in Milltown Malbay. The infrastructure is improving, but we need to see further improvements. The more that the motorways are opened up and the easier it is for people to get access to rural Ireland, the more people will live there.

The officials in my Department have to talk to officials from the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment. Deputy Ó Cuív raised this issue and I spoke about it on the radio today. Legislation was brought in many years ago by Deputy Ó Cuív's Government about water planning. It had to be looked at. The amount of young people who have been given sites by their fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters and cannot build on their own land has to be looked at again. We have to give people an opportunity to live in rural Ireland. I do not know the word now used for the new scheme, but planners appear to be trying to stop people from living in rural Ireland. If we are serious about people living in rural Ireland, we have to make it easier for them to live in it, and we have to give them some of the services that they need.