Paul McGrath (Westmeath, Fine Gael)

I thank Deputy McCormack for allowing me to share time with him. This debate revolves around the kind of Ireland we want in the future, our plans for the future and the opportunities we will create for our young people. Will the trend of recent years continue with more people moving from rural areas to the towns? One third of the population now live on the eastern seaboard, and small towns and rural communities are to a great extent being wiped out. Is that what we want or do we want rural communities that are vibrant? The secret to keeping rural communities alive is that they be vibrant and self-sufficient so that they have a quality of life that can attract people to live there. In that context we must consider what has happened over a long period to our rural communities.

The Minister rightly talked about how farming has changed. Forty years ago many families were brought up on farms of 40 acres, which provided a reasonable living to a family. How can a family survive now with a 40-acre or even an 80-acre farm? The whole scene has changed and farmers now need very big farms if the income from the farm is their only income. As the Minister mentioned, farmers must become part-time farmers, which has happened gradually over the years.

Cattle marts gradually declined, with marts taking place in the evening and now a variety of marts have closed. This is a sad blow to the farming community. Coupled with the part-time work that might be available to farmers, agricultural colleges have closed. Over the years, why did we not see the need for farmers to have part-time jobs to keep them working in the community? Why did we not introduce them to skills and train agricultural college students as mechanics, carpenters, plumbers etc. so that they could remain in their rural communities and continue farming?

In recent years the community employment and FÁS schemes kept many farmers going. As the Minister said, in rural communities fantastic work was done by many from the farming community in maintaining the local sports areas, community halls, around churches, graveyards etc. However, the Government wiped out most of those employment schemes, which was a huge blow to small farmers in rural areas who were able to supplement their income in that way. They no longer have that opportunity.

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