Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I know. I am not saying a word to the Minister. She has the task and she is doing her best. I am saying that rural affairs deserved a full ministry. In rejecting Deputy Martin Kenny's Bill, the Minister is the one who introduced topics to the discussion, including with regard to public bodies engaging in box-ticking exercises. She also stated that rural Ireland does not stop at the farm gate. We all know that. We do not need lecture on that. Perhaps some of the Deputies who have never left the Pale might not know it. The farm gates are vital. Look at the pressure on agriculture. Look at the inspection rates. We have a huge issue with a lack of gardaí throughout the country. We have one garda for every 370 people. We have one agriculture inspector for every 39 people. Think of this: last night, people here said farmers are not regulated enough and that there are not enough farm visits. They are riddled with farm visits - they are terrorised. The Government also promised us that it would desist from unannounced inspections and at least give people some bit of notice that the inspectors are coming, particularly as 99.9% of farmers want to be compliant and want to protect the environment, heritage and everything else. There is a small minority and they must be rooted out. Nobody supports them.

I can list all of the issues, including rural roads, broadband, post offices, small schools and community hospitals, which I raised during a Topical Issue debate 30 minutes ago with Deputy Butler from Waterford about to step-down facilities in Dungarvan, County Waterford and Cashel. The beds were pulled without notice. The Minister for Health was annoyed that we were not notified. Nobody told us last Friday evening - the beginning of a bank holiday weekend - and they were moved on Monday morning. The number of beds and services are being cut but the Government tells us it wants to improve services.

Mobile phone coverage has become a pure disaster during the past 12 months. It has got worse and worse. With regard to public transport, when there were strikes in Dublin huge energy was put into fixing them, and rightly so. When Bus Éireann workers went on strike, what happened? They were left out. What happened at the depot in Clonmel, one of the biggest inland towns in the country? In the middle of the strike, the buses were removed from Clonmel and now we have no public bus services provided by Bus Éireann. There are only private contractors. Is this what the Government means by rural services and rural support? It would not happen in Dublin or anywhere else. At midnight on a Saturday night, the depot was closed down, buses were stood down and drivers were either moved to a depot at 20 miles away or further or else they were retired. The to-hell-or-to-Connacht approach still applies in many of these quangos, such as Bus Éireann, CIE and the HSE, over which Ministers have no control. They are playing havoc with rural Ireland.

We have a huge problem with IDA Ireland and I have it from the chief executive himself that it cannot get industries to locate outside Dublin, not even to the other cities. When I speak about rural-proofing, I mean everything below Newlands Cross on the other side of the M50. IDA Ireland cannot get companies to go to Limerick, Cork or even Galway, which is a difficulty. I am not blaming anyone for this but it is bad planning. They want everything in Dublin, which is congested and where people are falling over taxis and buses and falling onto Luas lines. I walked from here last night at midnight, and three or four taxi drivers were calling me into their taxis and dozens of them were lined up. One would be waiting two hours for a taxi where I live and one which not get one. That is a fact.

All of this lip-service is no good. The Bill is a decent effort towards starting to do some rural-proofing and I do not think the Government will oppose it. The Minister said there is too much box-ticking and too many flaws in the Bill but it can undergo to legislative scrutiny. The Government can work with Sinn Féin and all of us who want to work on the Bill if it is serious about rural Ireland. I honestly believe that it is not. The lights are being turned out on a gradual basis. We have bad planning in the whole area of the regional strategies and the spatial strategy. We have companies such as Eirgrid and what happened today with the Bord na Móna factory in Littleton, County Tipperary. It has been there for 60 years with a workforce of 87 people and 57 people out on the bog. The lights were turned off again. The staff were told they can go into arbitration tomorrow and they can go to speak to their unions, which can represent them, and they might be able to get alternative employment. To hell or to Connacht is back with the Government. It is always the way with Fine Gael. This is its policy. I am not surprised by it. The party does not care about the ordinary people of Ireland. That is so sad.

We had the spectacle of the Taoiseach going to Glenamaddy - with its four country roads - or was it Edgeworthstown in County Longford? He announced whatever way he would go this week - with roads this way, that way and the other way. Two miles out from Edgeworthstown, one would drive into a pothole and lose the car. There is no broadband and no services for anything else. It is lip-service. Over the past 11 years we have roll-out after roll-out from successive Governments - I was in one Administration myself. I am sick of roll-outs. It is like the churn rolling in Tipperary Town, which is a festival that takes place in July. It is a wonderful festival. We are rolling out broadband and we are giving countless millions to consultants and big companies, who are milking the system and there is no service.

I know a young man who lives two miles from a particular town. He applied to join the Army approximately three years ago but was unsuccessful. He got a second chance approximately one year ago. He has very poor broadband at his house in Faugheen, County Tipperary, and he decided to go to Carrick-on-Suir to an Internet cafe to be sure to be sure for an interview online. Halfway through the interview - bang - he was disqualified and it was not his fault. People try to fill out CEO forms. Farmers try to apply online to the Department and it punishes them for not doing so. They do not have the broadband to allow them to apply online. People who want to study are not treated equally. They travel to colleges in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Tipperary and Clonmel but they are totally disadvantaged compared to people in towns with broadband because they cannot do it.

We speak about equality. We have some equality. We have second-class citizens and no better. Post offices are under savage attack. What did the Fine Gael Minister of State do? I told him here three weeks before Holy Week he had done the greatest Pontius Pilate job that was ever done. He said he had nothing more to do with it and that it was the responsibility of the Minister, Deputy Naughten. This is the greatest charade that ever happened. He is from Mayo and claims to be looking after the people of rural Ireland. He just dumped it on the Minister, Deputy Naughten. It was the greatest weakest meanest act. The Pontius Pilate job happened on Holy Thursday. This was two weeks before that. He wanted a very early Easter. I hope he got his Easter eggs. He will get them if he does not retire because the people are sick and tired of it in Mayo and everywhere else. The Government is paying lip service. I am surprised at the Minister because she is from the constituency of Cavan-Monaghan which is a very rural part of the country. It had huge industry, with very ordinary people who had cottage industries with poultry and mushrooms and everything else, but they are all gone.

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