Mr. Seamus Boland:

The comments made by Deputy Danny Healy-Rae echo the meetings we have had around the country. As I said, we are not climate deniers as an organisation. At the Hodson Bay Hotel in July this summer, we brought in 250 people who were looking for ways and means to refit their homes to move into the next stage of modernity. There is a hunger out there. We are calling strongly for a proper discussion and summit rather than putting it in through the budgetary mechanism. As I said on the radio to the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, the adults should be brought into the room to have a proper discussion about the matter. I concur with the Deputy, therefore, in that regard.

Deputy Michael Collins spoke articulately about the closure of services. Irish Rural Link has said time and again that it is concerned with sustainable rural communities, that is, communities with people living in them. People cannot live in rural communities if the financial mechanisms are no longer there. If there is no financial or economic hub in the area, people will move. I know that from the experience of my family, of whom more are working in Dublin than at home in the midlands. The area to which the Deputy refers requires that financial hub, which we believe will be provided by the public bank we are proposing. It will provide that impetus as an alternative bank.

On the issue of post offices, as the Deputy will know, we have had reviews but we are stuck with a situation where post offices are not used as much by the public as they used to be. That may be a function of the public leaving the area, and one may be leading to the other. We need to know how to retain what is another financial segment in that community. When a post office is lost, a financial segment in the area is also lost and, therefore, the issue requires serious consideration.

We in Irish Rural Link are talking about restoring an economic hub. I draw the committee's attention to the recently announced 2040 strategy. The framework is there, and it was launched by the current Government in Sligo. We need to honour that framework and do what it says. It goes back to the Buchanan report in the 1960s, which was about creating financial and economic hubs in regions, rather than centralising it in one place such as Dublin.

I concur with many of the points raised and I thank members for their comments.