Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to speak on this important Bill this evening. There has been a growing divide between urban and rural regions which has been ignored by successive Governments or, at best, we have not had effective measures to deal with it. We have regulatory impact assessments and social impact assessments and other legislation already in place. This Bill proposes a similar process and would have the same effect, potentially protecting rural communities.

Mention has been made of the fact the Bill may not be perfect. We have Committee and Report Stages where Bills can be changed and amendments can be put. I ask that the Bill go forward, and I know Deputy Martin Kenny will speak more on this as the man who put it forward and I want to compliment him on that. The Bill will put a statutory obligation on public bodies to adopt an impact assessment aimed at reducing inequalities for rural Ireland, which will show a clear commitment to the future of our rural communities. People are being forced out of communities. People may be living in rural Ireland, but are being forced out of it to find work and to suffer long daily commutes. We meet them every day on our way to Leinster House. This is because of the lack of employment, services and basic infrastructure. We need to put in proper infrastructure in the regions, whether it is mobile phone coverage, broadband coverage or rural post offices. This is every bit as important as the rural electrification scheme was in the last century.

The threats to rural Ireland are very real, and there are many examples of how they have been disregarded in various Government policies going back over the last number of decades, which seem to ignore the uncertain future of many rural communities. Coming on the back of the closure of many rural banks, we now have the threat of the closure of rural post offices. The potential closures will have a serious impact on community life. Following years of neglect, the Government now needs to look at the impact that this will have. It must develop other options to create a viable post office network by expanding the services. Our party has called for the inclusion of services such as those outlined in the Kerr report, including motor tax, business rates, banking services, collection of rents and various other Government services. We have been proposing that for a number of years. The former Deputy, Michael Colreavy, outlined this a number of years ago. Post offices should also retain existing services such as social welfare payments.

The Government's commitment in the action plan for rural development is to ensure that all homes and businesses are connected to broadband, which is good. We want that. The lack of high-speed broadband in rural Ireland is a serious limitation. It is key to helping to breathe life into sustainable rural economies and rural Ireland. There is a huge question mark over 540,000 homes and premises across Ireland that do not have proper coverage. There are a further 200,000 on top of that which will have proper coverage under the scheme announced a month ago. In fact, that is picking the low-hanging fruit. The company involved has had a go at me over it but I stand over what I said. If one picks the richest pickings first, anybody coming in after that will find it more difficult to service the hard to reach homes and premises. Previous commitments from Government on broadband access have failed in many areas and have failed many communities. They have left many communities behind, with no or very poor coverage.

The Government needs to have a clear vision for the way ahead for rural Ireland and it needs to take action. We have an opportunity with renewable energy.

We have not caught onto this properly at all. There have been some pilot projects but we need to go up a gear on this. There is an opportunity here to create jobs and income in rural Ireland through renewable energy. This would help sustain rural populations. We have options for the expansion of biomass, anaerobic digestion, solar, hydro and various other forms of renewable energy. It would help reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and we all know how far behind we are in that regard. It will help both to create a greener economy and to create economic growth within areas where jobs are needed most.

My constituency, comprising Laois and south Kildare, faces a number of problems including threatened post office closures and loss of other services. However, the population has increased by 5% there and there is no case for closing post offices. As we seek sustainable growth in the area, we need diversification of the services offered by the post office and with the increase in population, the post offices can be made sustainable. Utilities are lacking across the board in rural Ireland and for example, some people in Errill, south Laois, do not even have mobile phone coverage. In the townland that I live in, Clonroosk, which is on the edge of Portlaoise, I do not have mobile phone coverage. I have changed provider twice in the hope that I get mobile phone coverage, but in the year 2017, I still lack such coverage in my own house. I am getting high-speed broadband, which is being put in where I live at the moment and that is to be welcomed. However, there are huge tracts of Laois that do not have phone coverage. I believe the mobile phone companies are taking down masts because they do not want to pay rates on them. People are telling us that mobile phone coverage is getting worse. I find that in areas where there was coverage, it is now weakened.

On broadband, the latest commitment to roll out broadband to 200,000 homes and premises includes only 5,060 in County Laois. That still leaves 12,845 harder-to-reach premises and homes that will not be serviced and the company that goes in there will have rich pickings. In Kildare, for example, under the scheme recently announced, there will be 8,956 premises serviced. That discounts 13,434 harder-to-reach premises. I highlight that as a typical example of what is going on across the country.

Figures were released in response to a Sinn Féin Member's parliamentary question on IDA jobs showing a net gain of IDA-backed jobs in County Laois in 2015 and 2016 of 28. That is out of a total net gain of just over 39,000 in the State over that period. While there has been a net gain of 39,000 jobs in IDA-backed companies in the Twenty-six Counties, which and my party welcomes, only 28 of them were created in Laois. Somebody needs to catch someone in the IDA and give them a shake. The county councillors of all parties are complaining about it and Deputies are being asked what is happening with the IDA. Rural communities can struggle to have access to vital services and they are struggling to survive. We need firm legislative action to give protection to rural Ireland and that is what this Bill does.

I will flag the importance of local government, which is sometimes left out. Local government need to be brought in as central players in this regard. I travelled around rural areas last weekend in my own constituency, as I do most weekends. There are fairly good facilities in some villages, including good sporting facilities and GAA clubs, but there are problems with lack of players. There are good primary schools in the villages but they lack the critical hub. We need to make sure we have post offices, good broadband services and shops. There is an area from Mountrath in County Laois to Kinnitty in County Offaly, where Deputy Nolan lives, in which one cannot buy a sliced pan or a bottle of milk as there is no shop. It is a huge area, a 25-mile strip, where one cannot even buy tea bags. We need to make sure that we have critical hubs.

The population is going to increase in this State. Let us try to build hubs and try to ensure that some of that population increase happens in rural villages. That can be done with good planning in a sustainable way and should be connected to sewerage and water schemes.

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