Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate Deputy Ring on his elevation to a very important portfolio in the Cabinet. I share a rural constituency with the Acting Chairman and we know the importance of having a Minister with responsibility for rural affairs. The Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, has also been of huge assistance to us in successfully securing Cullion fish farm in our constituency.

I see clearly that the Minister's job is to initiate policy. There are 276 actions under five pillars in the rural development plan. We hear the debate about the spend of money in local authorities. To me, there are two key words: "allocate" and "spend". It is the Minister's job to ensure he has the policies in place to allocate money to the local authorities in order that they can spend it. We have to realise, however, that we have a system of local democracy. We pay directors of services and staff in county councils large sums of money and they should be held accountable and spend the money they are given. Deputy Ó Cuív spoke about underspends in local improvement schemes and said that we should be inspecting all these roads and works. Is it the Minister's job to go around holding the hands of those in a local authority to ensure that the works are carried out on every byroad and back road? I do not think so.

Rather than being negative, I will share our experience in Westmeath County Council. I took it upon myself to meet the management team within the county. It was not a huge secret that we have a new Department with responsibility for rural affairs, nor was it a secret that the Minister is setting up this new Department, which will take time, and that he has a big budget which he is trying to get together and ensure he gives to the local authorities. Westmeath County Council restructured its management section and it now has a section that mirrors the Department of Rural and Community Development. This is to ensure that it can spend its money when it gets it and that it puts forward professional applications. We have heard that some of the applications of local authorities under the town and village enhancement schemes were quite poor, but that is a matter for the local authorities.

At budget meetings throughout Ireland, the director of services, the director of finance and the heads of local authorities are going in front of our local elected members, and those members need to be asking where the spends are in all these key areas to ensure that we get accountability. That is the democratic system. On the idea that the Minister would hold the hands of those in a local authority and call in all these county managers to ensure they have spent all their money and to ensure they know they need to take responsibility, they are being paid to do that job. It is the Minister's job to allocate the money to them. Therefore, rather than giving out at length, we should be going back to the local authorities and the members with whom we work in the local authorities and asking them to hold their management to account. We should be asking our local authorities how they are responding to the new Department of Rural and Community Development and how they are ensuring they are in the best possible position to get funding.

I am a member of the Committee of Public Accounts. On dormant accounts, the Comptroller and Auditor General's report for 2016 recommends a review of the 2013 to 2016 disbursement scheme to identify how well the scheme has been implemented and how future schemes can be designed to ensure objectives are met. Has this review been carried out? Will the Minister shed some light on the average net transfers from the dormant accounts and repayments to account holders who make claims? We have an awful lot of schemes now. We have seen how well schemes such as CLÁR and the sports capital grants scheme, which the Minister was in charge of, have delivered to local authorities, especially given we are getting more resources now. It has been a very difficult time but it is important that we all share responsibility. We have heard arguments where people try to bury rural Ireland and say it is dead and gone. It is not. We are trying to target key areas to improve rural areas of Ireland, and rural communities are responding. When they get the money, we must ensure that we, on behalf of the citizens, advocate to ensure that it is spent and that we are not listening to this argument again in the future.

I will mention a critical matter. The Minister asked for shovel-ready projects for some of those schemes. That is what they should be given.