Mr. Seán Finan:

I thank the committee for giving us this opportunity. My name is Seán Finan and I am the 35th national president of Macra na Feirme. I am pleased to be joined today by my colleague, Mr. Paul Smith, Macra na Feirme's policy officer. Macra na Feirme is the representative organisation for young farmers and rural young people. We have 9,000 members in approximately 200 clubs across the country. We cater for members aged between 17 and 35 and have six key programme areas, namely, agriculture, public speaking, performing arts, sport, travel and community involvement. We aid the personal development of young people through encouraging social interaction and participation in our key programme areas.

The Macra na Feirme rural youth committee is focused on developing policy and programmes geared toward young people in rural Ireland. The three main areas of concentration for the committee are rural and youth affairs, health and well-being, and our travel and exchange programme. Macra na Feirme is affiliated to Rural Youth Europe, which provides our organisation with the opportunity to discuss issues of concern with other affiliated organisation across Europe.

Encouraging job creation should be seen as the pivotal element to ensuring a high quality of life in rural Ireland. A steady supply of employment will decrease the prospects of a depopulated countryside and will inspire more young people to remain in rural Ireland. To attract job creation to rural Ireland, an educated workforce capable of filling positions in these new businesses and a fully functioning and modern infrastructure are crucial. The regional action plans for jobs offers huge opportunity. Resources are required to deliver on the regional action plans.

In terms of infrastructure, broadband and the rail network as well as the regional road network are needed and must be modernised. The Macra na Feirme rural youth committee believes high-speed broadband in rural areas will help rural communities to prosper. This is constrained by the lack of availability. As day to day activities increasingly rely on broadband, the availability of the latest broadband technology will be the defining aspect in the ability of rural Ireland to attract business and jobs. Improving the level of broadband, by supporting the roll-out of the national broadband plan, will increase the attractiveness of the countryside and rural areas for young people. For the farmer who wants to register calves online or submit a basic payment application, broadband is crucial. A student returning home at the weekend who wants to submit a college project needs to get online. For a business looking to establish in a rural town or a resident of a rural area who wants to shop online, a fast and efficient broadband service is crucial.

The SIRO project, which is a joint venture between ESB and Vodafone, is being rolled out across the country. The project is delivering broadband by wrapping fibre optic cable around the ESB wires and is being hailed as the best thing since rural electrification. However, it involves the medium to large town and not the more rural areas. The map is very striking, with many rural areas left barren and losing out again.

The importance of an adequate rail network and secondary road network must not be forgotten. From a tourism point of view, it is easier to manoeuvre around Ireland with a better road network. A better road network will boost tourist numbers in rural areas and encourage more people to access the country. A modern road and rail network will assist only in attracting businesses and, therefore, increasing jobs.

Macra na Feirme calls for a full review of all time tabling on our rail routes to ensure commuter services are available on all lines and that they arrive in our large cities at times that are convenient to people starting a their day's work early in the morning. This would mean our smaller regional towns would become an attractive proposition to live in for commuters who can work in larger urban centres. It has the potential to take people off the road network and improve quality of life for people who commute.

Macra na Feirme feels investment in rural infrastructure and education are key to encouraging job creation. Leader funding is very important in encouraging enterprise and rural diversification. As a youth organisation, we feel the health of young people, both physical and mental, is a very important area. The level of health service provided in rural areas needs improving.

Social isolation is an issue due to the geographical constraints of rural communities. Members of the farming community can live a long distance from their neighbours and that limits the amount of interaction people have and can contribute to fear and isolation.

Macra’s rural youth committee has tried to tackle this problem by running campaigns such as the "know your neighbour" campaign in association with Calor Gas. We also hosted various mental health seminars and we look forward to engaging with the newly established youth mental health task force. Mental health services should become more community based, focusing on mindfulness and its importance. Mental resilience and coping skills are vitally important to both young and old people to ensure they can cope with the day-to-day struggles that present.

Rural crime is an increasing problem. Some 50% of young farmers who were surveyed as part of the FBD young farmer of the year survey have been a victim of crime. Another startling statistic that emerged from the survey is that 83% of young farmers felt they should have the right to bear arms to defend their property. That sums up the fear and frustration that exists in rural areas on crime. Macra na Feirme calls for a significant portion of the new Garda recruits to be posted in rural areas to help combat rural crime.

Action must also be taken to tackle high quotes for car insurance for young people. The current price insurance companies are quoting make it unaffordable for some young people to get access to car insurance. Our resolution is to work with the insurance provider FBD to secure a 15% discount for Macra na Feirme members.

From my experience, rural Ireland is very much alive and despite some of the commentary that exists, we must remain positive. We must promote the quality of life in rural areas and the benefits that living in rural areas bring including fresh air and views of spectacular picturesque countryside. Farming continues to be the backbone of rural Ireland and we need to promote opportunities for young farmers, but we must also promote more opportunities for young people in rural areas who are not directly involved in agriculture.

As on organisation, we feel strongly about the implementation of the Commission for Economic Development of Rural Areas, CEDRA, report. The CEDRA report is of critical importance in terms of the economic development of rural areas. We welcome the action plan for rural Ireland and the charter for rural Ireland which were published a number of years ago. We urge that the reports would be actioned. The CEDRA report has been published for a number of years but we have seen very little action or resources assigned to it. We also feel the Leader programme, under the rural development programme for Ireland, along with funding for the European Investment Bank, should be used to provide investment to projects in rural areas. The investment will provide opportunities for the development of small niche enterprises that will attract jobs and investment to rural areas.

Some previous presentations referred to flooding. Flooding has had disastrous consequences on both people’s homes, lives and business and on farm land. We ask that further funding would be set aside for preventive measures to stop flooding in rural areas. I thank the committee for giving us the opportunity to present to it today. We look forward to working with committee members for the betterment of rural Ireland.