Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

-----but it will not make any significant difference.

The Taoiseach says I should read the action plan. I have read it. I am interested in, for example, action No. 183, which relates to the continued delivery of Inland Fisheries Ireland's Something Fishy national schools programme to inform and educate students on fish, water and angling. Will that rejuvenate rural Ireland?

In much more concrete terms, the issue of Brexit will have a huge impact on rural Ireland. I was briefed by the ESRI last week. Dublin may gain a slight overall advantage according to the ESRI's assessment, but Brexit will have an enormously negative impact on some regions in Ireland. In that context, the regional action plans for jobs, which were carefully constructed during my party's time in government, are no longer fit for purpose because all the metrics have changed. Would the Taoiseach consider re-examining how we will have a regional and spatial joined-up strategy to ensure that we might abate the damage that is certain to be visited upon rural Ireland in the coming period?

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