David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend the Rural Independent Group on tabling the motion. I agree with an Teachta Tóibín that the motion could have been stronger in its intent and in what it calls on the Government to do, but it does afford us an opportunity to speak again on the issue of rural Ireland and the importance of protecting rural communities, especially in the context of infrastructural development and, particularly, roads, to which the motion speaks.

Again, during Private Members' business, the relevant Minister is not present to hear all the contributions from all the parties. We had something similar this morning when we discussed NAMA and the Minister for Finance left after one or two speakers had made their contributions. Notwithstanding the presence of the Minister of State, such an approach does not pay respect to all the speakers in the House.

However, given that he is here, the Minister of State might pass on a message to the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, which is that the Minister is also welcome to visit Waterford. He can visit places such as Aglish, Villierstown, Clashmore, Ardmore and many more, where, as in other parts of the country, as a result of floods, decay and all sorts of other issues, roads have been washed away. However, they have not been replaced because, as stated by an Teachta Tóibín, the capital budget was slashed during the recession and not rebuilt. We have one of the lowest capital spends in the entire European Union and the areas of roads was one of the biggest areas that suffered as a consequence.

The Minister of State might have seen the movie "Jerry Maguire". It had a famous phrase, "Show me the money". That is what this comes down to; we can have all the motions and action plans we want but we need to invest the money. The Government announced a plan for rural Ireland where €60 million is made available for 600 villages and towns over three years, which is €30,000 for every town or village in the State per year. How in God's name will that deal with all the issues, including broadband, roads, and infrastructural development, facing rural towns and villages? The plan states that there will be rate reviews and rate reliefs for businesses but the Government is trying to pull the wool over people's eyes with its €30,000 per year per village. It is not giving us the resources we need.

While I commend much of what was said by those in Fianna Fáil in their contributions today, at least we in our alternative budget provided for significant additional money for roads and capital investment. Our capital plan provided for €1.2 billion of additional money. As I have pointed out several times, this could be paid for given the flexibilities in spending and the fiscal rules which mean that we can smooth capital investment over four years. We can front-load capital spend. What we had from Fianna Fáil was a back of an envelope alternative budget that was not even costed by it.

The budget presented by the Government did not deliver the goods or the funding required. The harsh reality is that we are discussing these issues again because the Government did not do what it should have done in the budget.

Many new roads need to be built, including the Waterford to Cork and Waterford to Limerick roads. Significant good work has been done to link Dublin with other cities and while this work has been necessary, many routes and cities outside the M50 built have not been joined up. If we want to build up the regions and achieve proper, sustained and balanced regional development, we must have a strategy and plan backed up with resources.

While I welcome the motion, the good intent behind it and many of the sentiments expressed by Fianna Fáil Party Deputies, we must be prepared to put our money where our mouths are and properly invest in rural Ireland. We must ensure the national broadband plan is rolled out and proper funding made available for flood relief schemes. These issues are all linked. I cited a number of towns and villages in west County Waterford which require flood relief works. Flooding damages roads. If we invested in proper flood prevention works, we would not experience the types of problems we have in recent years.

The Government has not delivered a joined up plan for rural Ireland and has failed many rural towns and villages. Much more needs to be done and this will require investment, money and resources. Without these, there is no plan and we are left with the spin we heard in recent weeks.

See this speech in context