Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am absolutely delighted to see the Rathmore Social Action Group before this committee today represented by Mr. Michael J. O'Mahony, Ms Samantha O'Shea and Ms Anne Fitzgerald. I wish to recognise all of the other members in Sliabh Luachra, especially Mr. Jerh O'Donoghue's wife, Eileen May, and his family, which has been very involved with him in the social action group. I recognise all the other members and volunteers that are involved in Rathmore Social Action Group and in the entire Sliabh Luachra area, which encompasses the Cork side of the Blackwater River and up into Knocknagree, as far as Scartaglin on the western side and Gneevgullia. In that entire area, the amount of voluntary assistance that has been given to the social action group and the amount of work that has been put in cannot ever have a proper value put on it because the work that is being done in the present time and that has been done in the past going back to the mid-1970s is massive.

It has made such a difference to the lives of elderly people from that area especially, which is very rural. Like Mr. O'Donoghue said, many people's houses were not up to scratch. People were living in conditions in which they did not have running water, bathrooms and a lot of things. They finished up in very lonely places. It was great that Mr. O'Donoghue and his group took them out of that scenario. I am sure that the people that came into his houses at the start have passed on, but there are many like them still there at the present time. It is great to see the way they are seen after with meals. There could be brothers and sisters or an elderly man and his wife and it is great that they are looked after with meals and medical care. I could give an example of one lady in her 50s. She was in a very rural part of Kerry living on her own. Her brother passed on and she was not well. She did not have the wherewithal to look after herself properly. Gladly, she was taken into one of the social action houses. She was a bit unsure of herself for a while and maybe wanted to go back home, but now she is very happy and well looked after. She is a different person totally due to all of the support she gets where she is now living.

That is one part of the work that the social action group workers carry out: providing houses for the elderly and rural people. They also have buses going around collecting more elderly people and bringing them to the day care centre where they pass a few hours and get a meal. The value of that is so great and means so much to the person to get out of the monotonous home life. They meet more people like themselves. They pass a few hours, sing a few songs and talk. It breaks up the time for them and is very necessary. It is to be applauded.

The workers do meals on wheels. They take meals out to people. They cater for the young as well with Teach Íosagáin. They run discos. There is a hall in which all of the community groups can have their meetings. I am very proud when I go to other parts of the county and indeed other parts of the country, because we have more in Rathmore than I believe a lot of other rural places have. I am very proud of that. I am very proud of the way in which Mr. O'Donoghue goes about his business. We listen to the Government talking about building houses. Mr. O'Donoghue has more built with less commotion than all of the fanfare that is going on around the Government's building. If we take our county as a whole, and the State was involved as well, there were three rural cottages built by the local authority of Kerry County Council since 2011. That is three rural cottages in six years, compared with what we have heard this man and his group have built. With very little fanfare or commotion, this work has been carried out in Rathmore.

They also fund-raise. The Ring of Kerry cycle race, thankfully, has given them funding over a number of years. They run a pantomime there. Everyone gets involved. There is a lot to be learnt from what they have done and from their ambitions for the future. How can we help them as a committee? In their strategic plan, it states that the social action group will construct a new 140-seater theatre as an extension to Teach Íosagáin. That is a very laudable project. How can we support the action group to help build that? It is important to retain our culture, which we are very proud of. When we can display it, we need a theatre like that.

They have plans for a drop-in centre for active older people to tap into their creativity. Sadly, I feel that is something that we are losing, have lost and will continue to lose. People in rural areas used to meet in the pub before but that is not longer possible with rules and regulations or whatever. We are losing all of the characters and all of the voices that they were able to give to us that were handed down to them. We need places like the drop-in centre that Mr. O'Donoghue and his group are talking about. We need to create places like this to ensure that we do not lose the culture of the people up in the hills and the glens of Shrone, Knocknagree and Gneevgullia, the elderly people who are 70 or 80 years of age now. The ideas their grandfathers had about rural areas were handed down to them. We need a continuation of that.

If we do not find out how we got here, we certainly will not have a clue of where we are going. I may have gone on too far.

The Government is talking about the possibility of purchasing unoccupied houses. I do not know what will become of it. Mr. O'Donoghue spoke about it and I know it is something we will be coming with. There is a plan for the construction of four houses on the convent grounds. Can we ask the Minister for the environment if he can help in some way to purchase the land or do something to help us? Is there a feasibility for developing rural tourism? We have a very rich heritage in that part of Kerry and that part of the country. Sliabh Luachra is renowned for its music, song, set dancing and step dancing. We need to help and develop what this group has in mind.

I do not want to exclude Tearmann Éanna. It is doing much the same work and its representatives are very welcome to the committee. We are delighted to hear from them and appreciate the work they have done and will continue to do to help the people in Galway. If we had more of the likes of the seven witnesses before us today, the country would be a much better place.