Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)

Sinn Féin has brought this motion before the House because the Government has completely failed to fulfil the commitments it made in the White Paper on Rural Development. Current Government policies based on laissez-faire economics are bringing about the destruction of rural Ireland. The Government is failing to ensure sufficient employment and income opportunities and balanced regional development and failing to maintain public services in rural areas. The fact that the commitments in the White Paper were not supported by the necessary funding and development of sufficiently wide-ranging programmes makes a mockery of the Government's claims that it is committed to maintaining the maximum number of people in rural areas and strengthening rural communities economically, socially and culturally.

Statistics have consistently shown that the Border, midlands and western, BMW, region has levels of unemployment above the average for the State. The Border region is among the worst in terms of unemployment. Recent census figures released by the CSO found that Carndonagh, Castleblayney and Dundalk have a rate of unemployment of a least 19% compared with a national rate of 4.5%. This is an indictment of the coalition Government, particularly in light of the economic boom of recent years.

The national spatial strategy, which was supposed to address the imbalance in employment, was strong on commitment but weak on delivery. The three main gateway centres into rural Ireland in the national development plan are Galway, Waterford and Limerick. The importance of these was re-emphasised with the launch of the national spatial strategy in November 2002. They were seen as the key to increasing the economic attractiveness of the regions in which they are situated. In each of these cities, unemployment has risen since 2002. Of the nine hub centres — Castlebar and Ballina, Tuam, Ennis, Tralee and Killarney, Mallow, Kilkenny, Monaghan, and Cavan, seven have seen the numbers of jobless rise, some by alarming levels. This makes nonsense of the Government's claim that the national spatial strategy is a success. Publishing it may have been a success, but it is clearly not being implemented.

We need to see increased investment in infrastructure, with Government support for the development of indigenous industries in rural areas. Without the investment in infrastructure, areas will not be able to compete or attract outside investment. Despite loud announcements from the Government about the decentralisation of Departments, very little has been done to advance decentralised job creation. We need to recognise that encouraging entrepreneurship, indigenous industry and the social economy provides the best opportunities for job creation in rural areas. We must move away from our over-dependence on multinationals which, after receiving large grants to set up, pull out after a number of years, leaving an area devastated. We must recognise that a small community that becomes dependent on one large industry is in a precarious position.

There should be encouragement for small and large-scale indigenous companies across the State, particularly in rural Ireland, with a research and development anchor. We must also recognise that 80% of employment stems from small and medium-sized enterprises. Investment in indigenous companies offers the best possibility of long-term sustainable job creation and economic development in rural areas. The same quantity and quality of resources made available to inward investors should be made available to indigenous enterprises. That is currently not the case.

The internationalisation of many industries, particularly the food processing industry, has led to the shutting down of many smaller plants, often with dire consequences for the small towns and villages in which they are sited. Local communities have found themselves powerless to prevent this. We need to support small businesses which, although they often generate small profit, are responsible for much local employment. These are often overlooked by the industrial development agencies. The Government also needs to encourage the development and marketing of new local brands in rural areas, as many businesses are not large enough to enter export markets. The Fuchsia brand developed in west Cork is a good example of the development of a regional brand encompassing a number of small companies.

Sinn Féin envisages a rural society in which everyone can have dignified, productive employment, a fair income and better quality of life. The Government's failure to fulfil its commitments in terms of access to employment and income opportunities confirms that it does not have the same ambition. It is worth noting that disempowerment of local government has meant that communities have little control over their own affairs. This is totally contrary to the White Paper's commitment to encourage participation in decision making. Women have also remained disempowered in rural Ireland because of the Government's failure to ensure gender balance on rural development bodies such as Leader and CLÁR. It has disgracefully failed to meet the target of 40% representation of women on the management boards of rural development programmes. It has admitted its failure in this regard by refusing to accept the amendments of Sinn Féin and other parties to recent legislation, such as An Bord Bia (Amendment) Bill 2003, to ensure that targets of at least 40% are met.

As I have explained, the Government has failed to fulfil its commitments in the area of access to employment. This is directly connected to its failure to fulfil its commitment to balanced regional development and the fact that it has not maintained public services in rural areas. Despite the publication of the national spatial strategy, we are arguably even further from a spatially balanced state than we were when the White Paper was published.

Public services in rural areas are under siege as the privatisation agenda is implemented. Government promises to "rural-proof" all national policies are worthless as rural post offices and Garda stations are closed, rural areas continue to be bereft of access to public transport and class 3 and even class 2 roads are allowed to fall into disrepair. For example, two Garda stations in north Louth have been closed or at least downgraded to part-time in the past year. In the growing town of Clonakilty in west Cork, advanced plans to downgrade the town's post office have met with a justifiable outcry from the people of the town. Failure to invest in infrastructure and communities means that these areas have not diversified and people have continued to drift to Dublin and other cities in search of employment.

The national spatial strategy suggests particular towns for special development status without proper basis or adequate spatial considerations. The effect, characteristically, is to drive one town, one community, one neighbour against another in the hopeless cause of developing a region by duplicating the mistakes of spatial planning that allowed all resources to veer to one centre with uneven development and marginalisation of surrounding rural areas. Currently, resources and investment are magnetically drawn to the greater Dublin area, or other relatively rich and prosperous areas, to the detriment of rural areas.

Industry locates near other industry. It tends to develop in clusters. This draws people, services and better transport into a centre, and because these resources are drawn to Dublin and other large urban centres and away from rural areas and smaller towns, more and more resources tend to be concentrated in the metropolis. Almost all factors of production in larger urban areas are cheaper and more easily accessed than in the rural areas. We need to ensure that plans are based on equality of outcome, not simply equality of opportunity. Plans need to be sustainable with regard not only to economic issues and long-term profitability but also in terms of the environment, natural resources, culture, social values and the provision of social services to provide an acceptable standard of living.

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