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

I welcome the extra funding provided for local improvement schemes this year. It is a positive although it came very late. The fact is the local authority could not spend it in the time it had to do so. The most recent allocation was announced a week ago. In fairness, the local authority could not accept the amount it received because it could not physically get the work done in the timeframe before the end of the year. The end of the year for having works completed to claim the money is 1 December. While I welcome the effort, it was too late to deal with the amount of money that could have been used. The Minister has promised he will give money again next year, but it is a shame to see money going back when it could have been spent if we had got it earlier. However, I am thankful for what we got in Kerry this year.

A big bone of contention for me is that people in rural areas are completely impeded from clearing rivers, and the rivers are all choked and blocked. It is costing the country a bomb to deal with flooding problems, blocked roads and flooded houses. It is just not right. If farmers go near a river, cross-compliance means they will lose their payments. This is wrong because over the years, farmers were the custodians of the land. They looked after it and handed it down to whoever came next. They are now stopped from clearing out the rivers and this must be reversed. What is happening is not good for the fish because there is no daylight in any river. They are all closed in.

Rural isolation is a desperate problem in the parts of the constituency I represent, and to think we have a Minister who will further affect people in rural areas. It is sad to think the Minister, Deputy Ross, will get away with his proposal to stop people having one and a half pints. They will have to stay at home. The only way they might know about what is happening around them is when they hear the deaths on Radio Kerry every morning. Their neighbour could be dead down the road and they would not know about it if it was not for Radio Kerry.

We have had no Leader programme since 2013. Whatever anyone tells us, it is just not happening. What are the obstacles? Why was it not left work away the way it was, besides aligning local development companies and local authorities? It is a farce to think a group that did not get Leader funding has permission to object to the people next door who did get an allocation. That is ridiculous. The red tape must be cut and the money must be allowed to be spent in the areas for where it is designated and intended. It is not happening. It is five years since Deputy Eamon Ó Cuív, and I publicly praise him today, had a system in place. Phil Hogan and Fine Gael blew it out of the water and we have had nothing since. That is the gospel truth.

People in rural areas need broadband just like people in urban areas. It is not happening fast enough. I cannot understand it. We have groups on to us now because while there is broadband a half a mile away on either side of them, they are in the middle and they do not have broadband. They cannot understand what is happening. Why was it not done in a methodical fashion? There are ructions and uproar because people cannot understand why they have been left out when the people next door have it. The local authority made a submission to address these areas. I ask the powers that be to ensure that these areas are filled in. Those people have the same rights as the people around them. They feel that having waited for so long, they may never get it now.

Mobile phone coverage has reduced in the past two or three years in most places. We had no coverage at the back of my house when mobile phones came out. It was fine for all the years in between, but we are going back to it again. It is the same for people who get out of the plane in Farranfore. Any one of the three roads out of it is a good start for people who have arrived in Kerry, but there is no mobile phone coverage on the three roads to Killarney, Tralee or Castleisland.

Payments to farmers under the areas of natural constraint, ANC, scheme were reduced by one quarter in 2008. At a time when every other group in society seems to be getting recognition, I ask that the full payment to which they are entitled is restored to participants in that scheme.

Rural parishes throughout the country are experiencing problems in hosting events such as field days and carnivals because they are unable to secure the necessary insurance. The Government must act to ensure people can continue to enjoy Puck Fair, the fair in Kenmare, the agricultural show in Kilgarvan, the St. Patrick's Day celebrations in Sneem, the Patrick O'Keeffe festival in Castleisland and similar events in County Kerry and elsewhere. The only thing left to many rural towns and villages is their day out and it is an important part of their identity. The organisers of these events struggled last year and fear they will not be able to operate next year. Our own show in Kilgarvan, which has been running for 27 or 28 years, faces great difficulty in securing insurance cover. Something must be done for these people.

Something must be done, too, for the young fellows in rural Ireland who are facing a predicament because they cannot go anywhere without a car. It is impossible now for a young man to get motor insurance and all we hear from the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Shane Ross, is that the parents of that young person should be put in jail if the latter is caught driving unaccompanied. I know a young fellow in Killorglin who was driving to Kenmare to partake of an apprenticeship. When his parents became worried that they might be penalised, he gave up the apprenticeship. Thanks to the Minister and his scaremongering, youngsters are being frightened off the road. It is shameful and disgraceful what Fine Gael is allowing him to do to rural Ireland. I am sorry for that young fellow, who is at home today in Killorglin.