Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his opening remarks. I know he was in north Leitrim last week and I must apologise as I was not able to attend. I am sure he had a good day in Rossinver. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, and wish him all the very best in his new role. I know he will be a fighter for rural Ireland. He certainly was on this side and I expect him to be the same on the other side.

With regard to the measures outlined, I will not go into every issue as other members have done so. With respect to the local improvement schemes, in my own county, Sligo, and in neighbouring counties, no money was spent on these types of roads for seven years and there are huge lists of people who want to have these roads done. While I welcome the money that has been spent, it was €17 million last year but only €10 million this year. I would have hoped that, by now, we would be in a situation where the Minister was announcing an additional package of money for these schemes. There is a substantial backlog and many people need these roads done.

As I said, the Minister was in Leitrim last week. There are two walkways in Leitrim which are awaiting funding and on which people are anxious to get going, one being the greenway from Manorhamilton to Enniskillen and the other through Ballinamore on the old railway line. They are in an area which, in terms of the number of overseas visitors, has seen a very negative impact because of Brexit, although it has not even happened yet. The area needs to see investment in critical infrastructure like this. The Minister mentioned the walk at Drumshanbo, which has been a tremendous success. We need to see more investment to be able to generate the kind of visitor numbers we need in regions like this.

On town and village renewal, I want to raise an issue I have raised with the Minister before. It is my view that the Government needs to prime the pump in this regard. We need to come in with more than schemes that just tinker around the edges. A decent grant aid scheme needs to be put in place for people to renovate these kinds of properties. If a 60% grant to a maximum of €50,000 is the type of grant that is put in place, it would be cost neutral because, within a year of offering that kind of grant, when the work starts to happen, the State gets excise duty, income tax from the people doing the work and VAT on the products being put in place. It gets all of that back and, within a year of offering that kind of grant, it gets the 60% spend back in taxes. All of that is without talking about the multiplier effect. Normally, when work like that happens, other people in the area also get work done or the person that is doing the work does additional work that is not covered by the grant. That has been the experience not just in Ireland but is also widely recognised internationally. It is a cost-neutral benefit to put that type of scheme in place.

If such a scheme were put in place across large areas of rural Ireland, it would have a magnificent impact on employment creation and regeneration and in getting people to believe again that there is a sense of future in rural Ireland. That is what we need to do. The Minister said rural Ireland is alive and well, doing well and all of that. The experience of many people, however, is that life is getting more and more difficult. One of the main reasons for this is that people cannot get access to credit. I have spoken to a number of people who have the kinds of properties the Minister is talking about in towns and villages throughout the country. They would like to be able to renovate them because there is a market for rental properties. We still have a situation in most parts of rural Ireland in which it is impossible to find a house to rent, even in a rural parish like my own, which does not even have a town or village and only has a church, a post office that is now closed and a pub. People who have houses to rent and who want to renovate them cannot get a loan from a bank to do it. They need that bit of assistance from Government to give them belief again. I urge the Minister to put that kind of money in place as quickly as possible.

With regard to LEADER, while I know there is movement at last in regard to the amount of money being spent, we need to see that delivered as quickly as possible in many rural areas. The issue of post offices was mentioned and I want to come back to it. The Minister is right that some post offices are small and will be unable to survive. One of the big problems at present, however, is the review mechanism that An Post has in place. If a postmaster or postmistress takes the redundancy package, the position is reviewed, and the review mechanism states that An Post will provide a post office where there is a population of 500 people in a settlement.

Its interpretation of a settlement is taken from the 2016 census. It is a minimum of 50 occupied houses, each no more than 100 m apart. If this criterion is used, it means An Post can close almost every post office in Ireland outside the major cities and big towns because there are few places where that criterion would be met. For example, it would not be met in an area with 50 houses, of which three or four are unoccupied houses. An Post has used an interpretation that will allow it to close almost every post office. That issue needs to be addressed. I appeal to the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, who I understand will have a role in this. An Post needs to be held to account on that because using that criterion is a means by which it can close post offices throughout rural Ireland. That needs to be reviewed. In fairness to Mr. Tom Hobson and Mr. Paddy McGuinness who have been asked to review this matter, they both have great empathy with rural areas and building them up and providing for them. The terms of reference of the review are totally flawed and anti-rural. I appeal to the Minister and Minister of State to do something about that because there is no point in letting An Post away with it. It needs to be changed quickly.