Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and Minister of State for their presentations. I wish them well in their work.

Many Departments deal with the issue of rural Ireland. The Minister and Minister of State come from rural Ireland and understand it. In terms of budgets, stamp duty and so on, could this committee or the Ministers present ask the Taoiseach for their Department to be allowed to rural proof every proposal or be given a veto when other Departments take measures that would not help rural Ireland? For example, agriculture is a major part of rural Ireland and the Ministers present understand it. Could we have a system in which they would have the main say and be able to block or, to be positive, improve something?

As for planning, can the Ministers do anything about the attempt to prevent one-off housing? Have they any say in the matter? It is good to see people returning to work but areas are struggling to keep workers for the schemes the Department is trying to deliver such as Tús, the CE scheme and the rural social scheme, RSS, In fairness, however, the number of RSS workers has increased. A guillotine drops in that if people have their year, three years or whatever done, they are gone. That problem is not the responsibility of the Ministers but it is not being addressed by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. Could they influence the issue? The amount of work that is done by Tidy Towns groups and so on in rural areas is incredible.

I commend our guests on the local improvement scheme, LIS. If possible, it should be announced earlier in the year, money should be made available for participants who can meet the percentage threshold by June or July and the work should be hit in the back end. Galway County Council has moved well on this but, in fairness to councils, the scheme is announced in September or whenever, documents are then received and participants are finally told whether their roads will be done. However, they might not be able to gather enough money and the Department will have to move on to the next road. Could we address the window of opportunity?

The Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, the then Minister, Deputy Kelly, and I sat down in Athlone. From Limerick to Dublin to Newry to Belfast and from Cork to Dublin to Newry to Belfast, the west of Ireland was taken out of TEN-T funding by the current Taoiseach in 2012. The programme for Government contains a commitment to cover the Border, midlands and western region with TEN-T funding. This does not pertain to the Department of Rural and Community Development but while its Ministers have been trying to get rural Ireland thriving, the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport has been doing nothing in this regard. The programme for Government commits to helping that area of the country. Can the Ministers do anything in this regard?

What are the Ministers' views on the national planning framework? I made a submission and held meetings in seven counties. On reading it, I may as well not have gone anywhere. Could the Ministers have some input into it?

I agree we cannot grab local authorities by the neck and tell them to spend money but there needs to be accountability. If someone is not doing his or her job in a local authority with regard to providing services to people, questions must be asked of that person's capability to do the job.

In terms of rural Ireland, the Department of Rural and Community Development is caught between a rock and a hard place but we need infrastructure. Given where they are from, the Ministers are well aware of that. Plans have been drawn up for the Atlantic economic corridor but we need only listen to the news. Yesterday, for example, we heard that €100 million was going to be spent on trains for somewhere else. Fair play, and that is good, but we are hearing that we are going to lose trains in our part of the country. Where can the Ministers make an input? Will the Taoiseach give them the power that is required? I have known the Minister for a while. If he has money, he will spend it, and the Minister of State is trying his best. However, if they do not have the clout to pull others back who have gone off on a tangent and tell them what needs to be done, we will not have balanced regional development. Can something be done in that regard?

I attended the agriculture committee yesterday, which discussed a new EU regulation on fisheries and catch that has to be thrown out of a boat. I am no expert on fisheries, but will any problem that arises for coastal communities in that regard be solved?