Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Minister and Minister of State well in their important roles in promoting, sustaining and revitalising rural Ireland. Every member of the committee is a part of the rural framework. The Ministers know how important rural communities are and how many feel left behind and isolated. I do not need to give the Minister any advice, but it is important that he not be stymied in his work or become a prisoner of bureaucracy. I do not believe that he has ever been partial to that.

A number of issues have been raised. My colleague, Deputy Burke, was correct. When I was a local authority member and there was a local improvement scheme, I raised hell and high water. It is up to local authority members to ensure that their share of the money from the November Estimates is provided. What is going on? Westmeath County Council is still proactive in terms of the LIS. Abolishing that scheme was the greatest scandal ever. It was the only way that people living down boreens in the back of God knows where could get a road. I know of people who had been left out of places until we got them into the scheme. I would not worry about these roads - they were the best. I have returned to a road that was done 20 years ago. It is still in place. They are brilliant roads. They carry tractors and everything else. The cost-benefit analysis of LIS is positive. If the Department's officials are worried about it, they should not be. Let their hair go grey about something else instead. The LIS is very positive.

The health boards left a notorious mess when they did away with the small grants for people to install back ramps, doors or toilets in their houses. Those grants were positive, but someone in the Comptroller and Auditor General's office or somewhere else decided that there was not enough supervision or the like. Those things could be done locally within three or four weeks without bureaucracy. The first question a bureaucrat asks is about how not to do something rather than how to do it. Let us be clear on that. I want the Minister to clear out many of these obstacles.

I am disappointed to hear about Leader. I have no interest in Leader now because I agree with my colleagues. The last thing anyone wants to do is get into the claptrap of form filling. Not everyone is computer literate. The people on the ground are giving it their best. Let us advocate for them. Not all of them are whizz kids getting 650 points. They have been the backbone of rural Ireland helping to keep us going. Having so much form filling is ridiculous.

I support a group that has received a bit of money through Leader. That is welcome. It has come into an additional bit of money and will use it on improving a building that does not relate to the grant. Due to the bureaucracy of the scheme, however, that might not be possible. I will give an example. A group gets €40,000 from the Department through Leader to carry out work and it gets €50,000, €60,000 or €70,000 from someone else to undertake different enhancement work. The new money is not grant aided. The group was just lucky to get that money from someone else, although not a State body. We will call it "private".

I hope those responsible for Leader will not stop that group, any Leader group or anybody else. I will bring down the place if I hear that and tear lumps out of somebody in the Dáil, because I will not stand for that type of nonsense. Deputy Burke and I have spoken about the N4, which is going into the west of Ireland, right through from Bunbrosna. We have everything ready, including corridors and so on. We are ready to rock. That will bring one to Sligo, will open up into Donegal and will go across to Castlebar. It is an important arterial road and network. Fair play to Westmeath County Council for the N52. We have to take a bow. It goes from Delvin to Kilbeggan and tremendous work has been done on it. That is the main north east to south west arterial route right through the country and we have to try to get money for it. There are plenty of places where we can spend money.

The Royal Canal is one of the most important projects ever undertaken in this country. Deputy Ó Cuív was involved as a Minister and the current President of Ireland was involved. The restoration of the Royal Canal was one of the most important projects ever to take place with regard to tourism. It is a wonderful amenity for tourism, leisure and general activity. Thousands of people go to it and good money was spent on it. There is a small spur of the Royal Canal which leads into Longford town, however, and money is needed to complete that.