Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Tom Fleming, who has raised an important issue. The Government has appointed a Minister of State with responsibility for rural affairs, Deputy Ann Phelan. She works across the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and is doing an effective job in raising these issues and giving them importance in government. In fact, she attended Cabinet last week to discuss one of the issues about which Deputy Tom Fleming is concerned.

I thank the Deputy for his compliments concerning the issue of smaller schools. We have a very good programme in place to alleviate the situation for schools that were at risk of losing teachers, recognising in particular isolated rural schools that are 8 km or more from the nearest school. We have also been engaging with local communities where enrolment numbers are dropping. This is an example of an action that Government has taken to address issues of serious concern in rural areas. Another is the announcement of the Leader programme by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Kelly, and the Minister of State, Deputy Ann Phelan, in recent days. Leader is an extremely important programme for rural Ireland. The most recent announcements pertaining to the Action Plan for Jobs by the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Bruton, also had a strong regional dimension. The latest plan stresses the importance of ensuring that jobs are created in rural Ireland and in those parts of the country that have not benefited from the economic recovery that we are now seeing, particularly along the east coast and in Dublin. The Department of Social Protection has ensured that post offices in general and rural post offices in particular are used to provide many of its services and payments to the public. The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy White, is working on the roll-out of broadband which is extremely important in rural areas, especially for those trying to run small businesses.

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