Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for the reply. I did a word search on her famous plan. Town is mentioned 75 times, village 35 times, hinterland once, countryside four times and parish is not mentioned at all. Most of us know the geography of rural Ireland is largely based on parishes.

It is interesting there is no mention whatsoever of the provision of sewage in all the little villages which do not have sewage services. There is no mention of bringing water. In fact, there is no mention of water, apart from waterways, with regard to bringing water to those houses still dependent on wells and streams. There is no reference to reversing the vicious cuts affecting the pupil-teacher ratio in primary schools. There is no reference to the horse industry, which is a rural industry. It cannot be a town industry. It is vital for the development of jobs in rural Ireland. There is no reference to fibre optic, which is the only type of broadband that suits rural Ireland. There is also no reference to townlands. I ask the Minister to be honest about this. As far as the Government is concerned, it wants to push everybody out of the traditional parishes and settlement patterns of rural Ireland and put them all into towns because it does not believe in rural Ireland.

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