Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is probably the woman who will lead us to the rural revolution. I look forward to working with her on it. It is great to have ambition and vision. It is always a good starting point. I would like to hear a bit more clarity, maybe not today, on upstairs living and renovation. I invite the Minister to come to Ennistymon in north Clare where she will see several examples of old buildings to which young people have moved and done up themselves. They have turned them into crêperies, hostels, places to live and IT recruitment centres. We have great examples in what is a heritage town. In saying all that, they have struggled and have been punished severely, financially, for their efforts. It took a lot of sweat, blood and tears and much more time than they thought it would, through loans, working hard, meitheals and everybody helping.

We have good examples in Ennistymon but it has to be made simpler if we want more people to do it. This dual use is impossible at the moment. Two friends of mine bought two old, beautiful buildings, completely renovated them and turned them into a hostel, café and place to live, which is phenomenal. However, they spent €58,000 on certificates alone. We will have to look at that. We cannot have everything required in modern buildings in old buildings if we are serious about town centre first living. There is an issue about having two separate entrances. Many of those buildings will have a front and back door. They will not have two front doors where there has to be one entrance for the shop and another for the living space. That will have to be seriously looked at if we are serious about town centre first living.

We have good examples in Ennistymon. I would welcome the Minister to the town and I will show her around. It is where we have the best example of a digihub, which is in another old building that was done up. My godfather was the owner of that building. We got the ball rolling, which was great. He passed away but it was a great legacy for him.

I flag the issue of rural bus stops with the Minister. They are all about three years old and completely illegible. It is really frustrating, especially for older people or people with disabilities who may not be on smartphones to find out when a bus is due. I have seen bus stops that are completely ruined and mouldy. I have tried to contact Bus Éireann several times in the last few years about it. I ask the Minister to flag it with Bus Éireann, so at least people could find out about existing services. The bus stops deserve a bit more respect. It is an insult to public transport if they are all mouldy and illegible. It does not say much about how we see public transport.

I thank the Minister for all the support on LocalLink. It is fantastic and it has to be linked in with the existing Bus Éireann transport services. They also service one-off housing dwellers, which is really good. There might be some space for looking at the revival of the An Post bus service since it has to drive around collecting the post anyway. If there were seats in the back, as previously, a few extra quid could be made in picking up people when the post bus picks up and delivers parcels. The money could go to help sustain the local post office. That worked really well. I am one of those who lives in the middle of nowhere, 5 km from the local village. That post bus was amazing as one could cycle down to the main road and hop on the bus there.

I raise an issue I brought up previously, which is that public buses cannot stop at the end of a road. They go along a main road but if one gets to the end of a secondary road and flags the bus, it cannot stop unless it is at an official bus stop. That is something that is missing. It means rural dwellers have to get a lift to their closest town or village which could be 10 km or 15 km away. We have good examples of this working in other rural villages, and rural places in Germany and France, where the bus can be flagged. A cheap lay-by is provided so the bus can pull in. It can be done. I suppose that is a transport issue. I will have to contact the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, about that.

Some of the community development officers are doing great work. However, their job description does not include the ability to hold town hall meetings. The Minister knows as well as I do that there are often many little groups fighting for the same pool of money, even in the same village or town. Community development officers often do not have the skills to hold a public meeting, bring everyone into one room, let them have it out, find the commonality and help them, altogether, apply for funding. There are often little groups in the same town or village applying for the same funding pot, which is ridiculous. Community development officers should have mandatory skills, so they can hold town hall meetings, facilitate those disagreements, find the commonality and help communities to work together on applications.

It is great the Minister mentioned Westport. It was ironic that Deputy Kerrane mentioned not turning car park spaces into areas with trees and seating because that is exactly what was done in Westport. There must be a balance too. It cannot be all cars or no cars. I have seen amazing places in Europe which have been completely transformed when they are designed for people and not just for cars. I welcome the design for Westport and that the Minister recognises it.

The urban planner in Westport presented a slide show of 20 photographs showing what happens when one car parking space is taken out and replaced with a tree and a seat. He showed pictures of old women sitting down talking, buskers, a woman breastfeeding, cyclists and so on. It is about a balance. It cannot all be about cars. It has to be people led. If places are made beautiful, then people will be brought back. I thank the Minister for all her great work. I hope we all support her on this great vision of hers.