Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not have primary responsibility for post offices but I am concerned about the issue. I would like as many post offices as possible to stay open. Some 950 post offices will remain open. As the Deputy is aware, I have provided €80,000 to the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment to establish a pilot scheme of ten digital assist post offices. I had no input into which post offices were chosen to participate in the scheme. The aim of the scheme is to see what we can do to help provide more services in the chosen post offices. The issue of post offices has been discussed and I do not wish to get into detail on it again today, but there has been a public outcry to keep them open. I have always been honest about post offices, as have some Deputies opposite. On this occasion, post offices were not compulsorily closed but, rather, were given a package.

When I was Minister of State at the then Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, I, along with postmasters and An Post, was responsible for considering what we could do to keep post offices open. I completed a report for Government which I handed to the former Minister, Deputy Naughten, who was responsible for post offices. On that occasion, we considered how to offer further services in post offices. I have allocated €80,000 for a pilot scheme of ten digital assist post offices to see what we can do to allow post offices to offer more services.

I attended a public meeting on a post office closure. I obtained the figures for the particular post office from An Post. Amazingly, although there were more than 300 to 500 people at the public meeting, the post office had sold 50 TV licences in that full year. Some 350 families were living in the area. Either people in the area did not have TV licences or they sourced them somewhere other than their post office. If people want to retain their local post offices, they will have to use them. We have made that point loud and clear and I have been honest on it. At that meeting, the local postmistress stated that she had to subsidise the post office to keep it open in recent years.

I hope An Post reviews the issue and considers where post offices can be saved and put into businesses or elsewhere. I encourage it to leave as many post offices open as possible. The public must use and support those which are left open, however, of which there will be at least 950. Deputy Fitzmaurice might have heard a segment on MidWest Radio featuring a postmistress who called a public meeting a number of years ago. Many of the local community attended and promised to support her.

She did not get the support she wanted and she made the decision to close the post office.

The second issue was in regard to the walks scheme. The Deputy is correct, in particular in regard to farmers. It is a very good scheme and we have 1,900 landowners getting funding from it. We had €2 million in the budget and I am glad to say I have got a further €2 million this year. I will be looking at ways and means of increasing that scheme for next year, but I have an extra €2 million. In line with the commitment in the programme for Government, therefore, we will be doubling that scheme next year. I know there are a lot of walks in the Deputy's area and there are many new people trying to get into the walks scheme. I have to formalise this and look at ways to progress it. While we will not be able to get everybody in, we will certainly try to double the number from the current 1,900. At least I have doubled the money from €2 million to €4 million.

The Deputy talked about the rural regeneration scheme. His own county has been very active. Cork has made 19 applications in category 1 and 47 applications overall for the rural regeneration scheme, so it has certainly been on the ball. As I said earlier, many local authorities, the public and some public representatives did not think this scheme was going to happen. I am delighted it has opened. Applications have now closed and we will be making allocations in November for the shovel-ready projects. We will make further allocations for other schemes later. My priority is the shovel-ready schemes, to get the successful projects announced and to have them operating for 2019. They will be announced in November so people know they have their money, and it is up to them to start progressing the schemes. Cork has done very well and it has certainly put in the projects. While many other counties have not done as well, it is a new scheme and people will learn from this. As I said to Senator Coffey, one of the big issues is capacity, and the local authorities now have the capacity. I want them to talk to the local communities and to have an input. We will be opening the scheme again in March but the priority is to get the first round open. We are assessing the applications and I want to get the allocations made in November.

The Deputy raised the issue of LEADER funding. We originally had €35 million allocated for LEADER in 2018 and this was supplemented by a further €5 million that was carried over from last year. Activity has ramped up and there are now 1,300 projects approved to the value of €43.4 million. Given the profile of the expenditure, however, I had to reallocate some of that money because I know it is not going to be spent this year. The drawdown to date stands at €15.6 million and I am confident that, by the end of the year, we will have that up to about €26 million. I am monitoring it and I will keep doing so. There is no doubt this is ramping up and that many more projects are being approved. Like every LEADER programme, it takes a number of years to make applications, get approval, do the work and then have the drawdown, and the drawdown is the final thing that is done. There is €25 million in total for the programme up to 2020 and there will be three years after that to complete the programme. I am confident we will have that spent and I can see it ramping up. There may be one year where we have a problem but we are hoping for a drawdown of €26 million this year and, if there is a shortfall next year or the year after, we will have to find that money.