Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank those who have contributed this morning. It is interesting to hear what has been going on in other communities. Dr. Cooke's story is known the length and breadth of the country. It is a fabulous project. I attended a community council meeting in Goleen in Mizen Head in west Cork last Monday night and we were talking about it, believe it or not, because we had purchased a bit of ground next to our community centre and are thinking of ideas. We might visit Dr. Cooke's project. If it is being talked about in Mizen Head, it is most certainly being talked about throughout the country.

I come from a rural community in a mainly rural constituency in west Cork. Eight businesses in my constituency have closed in the past two weeks. A school can close due to a fall in population. I know we can identify many houses that are empty in our community, particularly in the towns. We have been pushing for the regeneration programme to be expanded into areas like west Cork. The programme is not working and is not moving in our direction. I find that communities are pulling out all the stops but they face a gale. That is the difficulty. The change in the LEADER programme was detrimental to west Cork. I can see the evidence in the trail of destruction it left, which we predicted but nobody listened. Much of this comes within the remit of the local authorities. I contacted my local authority about six weeks ago on a broadband issue and received a response yesterday. That tells us where things have gone in this country. It took six weeks to respond and the response was totally contradicted by the information I received from Eir. I think the whole thing is lost. It has lost touch with reality on the ground.

Local communities are fighting very hard to come up with projects and turn things around because nobody wants to lie down. People in Drimoleague recently got a grant to paint the village, which has gone through tough times. It is now rejuvenated and bright and the council is resurfacing the village roads. Things like that are small but they are very important to communities and have made a major change in Drimoleague.

Without easier access to LEADER funding and funds that will continue to regenerate communities, things will go in only one way, unfortunately. If we keeping closing services such as post offices, we will knock the very life out of towns. I come from Schull where the local bank was closed. The second biggest shop in the town closed within 12 months with the loss of 17 jobs because people were going to the neighbouring town to do their banking and no longer came into Schull. The same will happen if post offices close. There is no forward thinking by the Government. A small subsidy needs to be given to postmasters because they cannot live on the minimum wage. That would be a long-term gain for a town or village.