Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister of State and her officials to the meeting and congratulate her on her appointment. I wish her well in that role. As we have five minutes, I have a small amount of time to say much. Make no mistake about it: there is a crisis out there. I do not want to be dramatic; I am only stating the obvious. If one speaks with anybody in rural Ireland in our constituencies or looks at rural towns and villages, one will witness absolute deprivation or dilapidation in the towns. The lifeblood has been taken from them and there is minimal retail activity. Unfortunately, people are not upbeat about their prospects.

I am disappointed that the Department which had a specific remit for rural affairs was dropped, but I am glad to see recently a new emphasis, and I hope that turns into something more. We must consider the facts, and they have recently jumped out at me. The decentralisation programme, whether we liked it or not, has been scrapped, along with the CLÁR programme. Community welfare offices and officers have been taken from rural areas and Garda stations have closed, with post offices continuing to shut as well. There is much pressure being placed on rural schools with between one and four teachers, as we can see with pupil-teacher ratios. There has been some rowing back on that, but if the Government is serious about rural schools and the communities and activities around them, the schools should be left alone and they should be treated as any other school is with regard to pupil-teacher ratios.

Shops and pubs are closing, as has been mentioned. I could be accused of holding a candle for the licensed trade, but while ridiculous prices exist in the multiples which sell alcohol, pubs will continue to close and there will not be any policing or controlled atmosphere, as there has been in the licensed premises which have served us well in the past. That brings about all kinds of difficulties and social issues, which must be recognised, and efforts must be made in a more focused manner to address the issue. The Government has fudged that for too long.

I produced a document, Streets Ahead, approximately 18 months ago and made it available to Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, who was the Minister responsible for the area at the time. I hope it has been passed to the Minister of State, as there are many suggestions in the document that I would expect her to seriously consider and seek to implement in order to address the dilapidation in rural towns and villages and revitalise them. We must work closely with local authorities to ensure they can have some hope of doing this. Many of the suggestions would be cost-neutral.

On Saturday the Taoiseach made a bold statement at his Ard-Fheis when he indicated that the Government would invest €4 billion in rural Ireland between now and 2020. I would like to see the meat on the bone of that commitment.

Will it be a re-announcement of funding across various Departments to various sectors in rural Ireland? This includes roads, hospitals and schools and local development companies. Is there anything new in the commitment? If I was in government and I thought there was €4 billion to spare, I would be looking at the universal social charge. It was a tax brought in in emergency circumstances and if the Government is telling us the truth that the emergency is over and there is €4 billion to spare, that is the shot in the arm that the country needs, including rural Ireland. More economic activity will be generated by virtue of that shot in the arm.

There is also the issue of retrospective bank capitalisation - the commitment by the Government to bring funding back to where it belongs by making a break between the sovereign and banking debt, since we invested so heavily to stave off contagion and save the euro. These are real issues that are not being addressed by the Government. This is something the Minister of State, along with everyone in government, has a responsibility to follow through. A commitment was made in June 2013. The Taoiseach and the then Tánaiste ran out of the summit and could not tell the reporters quickly enough that they had a deal for Ireland and that we were special. However, it went no further, and we heard over Christmas that the policy had been abandoned by the Government because it now wishes to look at selling AIB, which will compensate us. A commitment was given and the funding that would be available to the country as a result would be massive.

When a statement is made on the national airwaves that €4 billion will be invested in rural Ireland between now and 2020, are we supposed to sit on our hands and wait to see how it materialises? With all due respect, that is not very fair to the Minister of State in her role, who has responsibility for injecting life into rural Ireland and rural development so that we can get behind her to work with her. Local authorities can then see that there is light at the end of the tunnel. The day of the bland statement has gone, and that must be recognised. The Taoiseach made a statement like that on Saturday, and on Monday we have 100 rural bus routes scrapped, two days after we were told by the Taoiseach that €4 billion was going to be invested in rural Ireland. That day is over and I hope it is forgotten about.

I hope the commitments made in respect of CEDRA, the work done on negotiation, consultation and engagement and the recommendations will work quickly. I believe the group has only met three times. Let us see the Minister of State get the support she needs from Government. Let us see the €4 billion over the next three or four years being placed in the Department in the hands of the Minister of State so that she can make recommendations similar to the 35 that exist and get funding to match the commitments. In that case, we can sit here in two years' time, having grasped the nettle, and see that things are being done and that there is light at the end of the tunnel. At the moment, the regions need a shot in the arm and they need real commitments, real spending and real resources. They do not need statements at ard-fheiseanna or conferences about investment of €4 billion over the next four years. That investment will happen anyway because lights, roads, footpaths, water services and developments in school building programmes and housing have already been announced. We welcome this, but let us see them in action.