Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister said in her opening statement, the Department is small, but it makes an outsized impact. The spending is really felt in communities. It delivers much public good. I acknowledge that we are bringing a degree of policy coherence. The Our Rural Future document and the town centre first policy that we expect to arrive shortly are bringing a level of policy coherence that draw together the different strands of what we need to support, particularly rural development and towns and villages.

One thing that jumped off the page was the big drop in spending on office premises. It ties into the idea of regional economic development. Are we investing enough in rural broadband and providing remote working hubs? This Department is uniquely well placed to engage in decentralised work. I know that the offices are not in the big smoke. I have a question about the town centre first funding. Some €2 million has been allocated. Portlaw in my constituency was earmarked for €100,000. That is labelled as capacity building. Can the Minister provide more detail as to what that means? While there is a thriving community in Portlaw that will be well able to take up the funding and run with it, are there more structured guidelines than that?

As for the outdoor recreation infrastructure scheme, the Minister came to launch St. Declan's Way with us in Waterford. We brought the good weather with us that day. We were happy to see the Minister. It is outstanding tourism infrastructure. The Waterford greenway has proven the value of this type of tourism. It is sustainable. It is slow tourism that brings tourism spending outside of large urban centres. With the development of the walks scheme and the outdoor recreation infrastructure scheme, is there any opportunity to overlap with the active travel output? St. Declan's Way, where it goes over the Comeragh Mountains, is not necessarily answering an active travel brief but some of that walk, between Cahir and Cashel, perhaps has an active travel pay-off. Is there an opportunity for synergy between the Minister's Department and that of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, to develop that further and drive it on?