Paul McGrath (Westmeath, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister for holding it in Mountbellew. To keep rural communities vibrant we must also provide the level of services that would be expected. For example, what is happening with Garda stations? The green man system is now operating in most rural Garda stations. People in those areas do not feel they have the same level of security as those living in towns.

In recent days, I am glad to see the Government has taken up a scheme I suggested for rural Garda stations. For a long time I tried to persuade the Minister to introduce a scheme to get rid of old Garda stations and provide new ones in their place. The Minister has now done this for many Garda stations in Tipperary and Limerick at the stroke of a pen, which is a good idea. For a number of years I fought to get the Minister to sell off the local rural Garda station in the area in which I was brought up and have a custom-built one provided in its place. Eventually he half conceded to the request. He has learnt from that and is now moving on.

Rural post offices are now virtually non-existent. In rural areas schools are winding down and in some rural areas where there is an increase in numbers they cannot get the extra resources in terms of teachers and classrooms.

The Minister speaks entirely about what is happening in rural areas around Connemara. We sometimes forget that the midlands is one of the poorest areas of the country because of the downgrading and almost winding down of Bord na Móna. In huge tracts of land across the midlands where Bord na Móna was very vibrant its workforce was wound down from thousands to very small numbers. Coole in north Westmeath was once a very vibrant community and now has little local employment. As Bord na Móna pulled out, we failed to find a replacement industry. Perhaps we should have considered horticulture or something else that would suit the area.

At one stage the Minister majored on rural planning to such an extent that first the Taoiseach and then the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government jumped on the bandwagon. While they claimed they would make changes, nothing has happened. There has been much publicity and expectation that people would have the opportunity to live and work in their local communities, but it did not work.

See this speech in context