Mr. Seamus Boland:

I thank the Chairman and the Members of the Seanad who are present. I also thank Deputy O'Dowd in the Gallery and my colleagues. I thank all for being here and for inviting Irish Rural Link. I will not go through the full statement. The committee already has that so it is on record. To put it into context, Irish Rural Link is a community organisation founded in 1991. We have the honour that one of our founding members, Michael D. Higgins, is now President of Ireland. We are glad to say that he has kept in touch with the work we do.

In a line, Irish Rural Link is about sustainable rural communities. If we take nothing else from that, we remember that phrase. Under our remit we have a wetlands forum, which is designed to maximise employment and the social and economic advantage to the area from wetlands and bogs, which are now coming into the news. We also have the scheme for refitting houses which we organise with the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI. This allows ordinary rural houses, which are extremely unsuited to the challenges arising from the current carbon debate, to refit under the aegis of the SEAI. We also have the meals on wheels network, which is one of the most important groups in the country. The incredible work done mainly by women who deliver meals on wheels to people who are housebound is to be seen on every boreen from Donegal down to Kerry. The groups also run befriending services. Many lives are saved by these women who, in delivering a meal, discover that a person needs a lot more. These groups have to be brought together and we compliment the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, on his work in that regard.

In terms of digital hubs and so on, in conjunction with the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment we run a major programme of computer training. This provides free training on computers which allows people to go online. It is essential given the isolation in rural areas. We are also involved in policy advocacy, which the committee will see in our submission on banking. We are also involved in advocacy on broadband, which as my colleagues have already pointed out, is one of the major infrastructure projects required in rural Ireland if we are to make any fist of keeping people at home and, more importantly, working because the biggest problem we face is that younger people are not staying in rural Ireland.

They are gravitating to where the jobs are. The real jobs seem to be more in the cities, unfortunately; for most families, including my own, more of the younger people are in Dublin than where they were reared. That is a real problem we need to tackle very quickly.

On the economic model, what we have put forward is based on our studies with the Sparkassen in Germany, which are local, regional, not-for-profit banks. Some Members of the Oireachtas have visited Stuttgart. It is a hub in terms of creating employment in a very wide region. It is a hub because the 200 year old local public bank is effectively the driving force. We have a problem; some of the figures were cited by my colleague in the Western Development Commission. We have had a decline in small business of, I think, 4%. Nearly every single job created in rural Ireland is in a small to medium-sized enterprise. We are talking about as few as five people working in a business. The worst thing we can hear is that this area is declining.

As the credit review report which monitors lending into the region points out, there is a high rate of credit refusal. The figure for the exact rate varies; according to ISME, it is around 36% while the credit review committee says it is 11.8%, which is the highest in Europe. We have to ask ourselves how long small businesses can continue to apply for funding only to find themselves refused or for the process to take so long that even when they appeal and are successful, the time for the business plan or the idea is gone. We have had members come to us to say they cannot even get cashflow support.

Instead of Irish Rural Link complaining about what is not happening, we have put forward a definitive proposal on how rural banking can be established, particularly examining local banking which could apply to the Dublin area as well. We put three years of research into this. There is now a stakeholders forum coming together. We believe and hope that hurries up and the terms of reference are published. We need it now. The gap between rural parts of Ireland and the cities is widening and will continue to widen.

We have made it very clear that broadband is the infrastructure, the blood and the reality in terms of creating up to 10,000 jobs. I think it was the former Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, who conservatively suggested it would create 10,000 jobs per month, yet we are still not delivering that programme. We really cannot allow any excuse, no matter what it is, to delay that process. On economic development, we had the 2040 launch by An Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, not too long ago. This plan goes right back to the Buchanan report, back in the 1960s under Seán Lemass. Had that report been implemented, it would have completely changed rural Ireland. The 2040 plan is the nearest thing to it but it needs injection of funding. It needs investment. It does not always have to be taxpayers' money but we have not yet managed the mechanisms to bring funding into the regions so they can become economic hubs.

I ask the committee to reflect on this. Rural Ireland is often depicted as always whinging and looking for more taxpayers' money. We see this in the portrayal of those of us who strongly fought against the carbon tax. It is not that we are climate deniers. We want a taxation system that does not bleed people more than they are already bled, that does not penalise people or stop them from taking up jobs, that allows people live in homes where fossil fuel is the only cheap fuel available, and does not allow them to die with the cold. One of the things that would have happened had it been introduced is that older people who already do not use their energy enough would allow themselves to be even colder. The Central Statistics Office shows that four people a year die with the cold in rural Ireland.

Can we look at the 2040 report and get serious about developing regions? Can we get serious about attracting investment into the regions and about reforming our banking system? I hope the rapporteur, Senator Ó Céidigh, will also consider these questions in his report. Rural Ireland does not want to be dependent on anybody but it does need support it has not been getting. I thank the committee sincerely and hope it takes our submission into account.