Martin Ferris (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Okay.

The Minister, Deputy Humphreys said in her speech, "What we all want is for rural Ireland to be treated fairly in decision making locally and nationally but what we need is genuine and meaningful engagement on rural issues with [relevant] policy makers at both national and local level". I will start my 16th year as a Deputy at the end of this month. During that period I was a rapporteurfor the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine. I completed a report on the west of Ireland, Awakening the West - Overcoming Social and Economic Inequality. In preparing that report I travelled from Malin Head in Donegal right down to west County Cork. I met fishermen, farmers and their organisations. I met people from family resource centres and small and medium-sized businesses. I met representatives of every sector it was possible to meet and produced this report. That report was accepted and supported unanimously by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine. It has sat in an office gathering dust since 2004.

Deputy Pearse Doherty, Teachta Dála for Donegal, also completed a report on small and medium-sized businesses, which is sitting out there somewhere. I believe that dates back to 2007. The former Minister, Mr. Phil Hogan - after pressure from people from rural areas, particularly Pat Spillane who believes passionately in rural Ireland - produced the CEDRA report. That is also sitting out there somewhere gathering dust.

I cannot understand how a Minister can stand up here and say, "What we all want is for rural Ireland to be treated fairly in decision making locally and nationally". The four successive governments that have been in power since I was first elected have all said the same thing. I was part of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Communications, Natural Resources and Agriculture which did a report on our offshore oilfields. That report is also sitting out there even though supported unanimously by the committee. While Ministers might say that is what they want to see, what the hell are they doing about it? The reality is that nothing has changed and it has got worse.

There is a decline in the numbers of young people in rural Ireland. I come from a coastal county. Right across the west and south of the county was the home of Kerry football. Every club south and east of Dingle has amalgamated with one or two other clubs for under-age football. Valentia Island is a fantastic area and one that has increased its population through returning elderly people. However, with young people it is struggling to put out a football team. One might ask why. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, was in the area recently to discuss a ferry which is a lifeline for tourism for the island. The ferry company has been told to replace its vessel at a cost of €3 million. From its own pocket it is putting up €1 million. The Minister, Deputy Ross, has told me that €2 million is a huge amount of money and he does not think he would be able to get it. It would only cost €2 million to keep a community alive and vibrant.

I spent part of my life as a fisherman, from the mid-1960s, through part of the 1970s and into the early 1980s. I saw it gradually declining because there was no political support for our coastal communities. I do not need to tell the Minister of State that; he knows it, as he comes from a coastal county. Some 87% of the mackerel quota is in the hands of 23 vessels. I know from the Minister of State's body language that he feels that is a terrible injustice even though he might not be able to say so in here. It is an absolute political disgrace. Who runs the country? Do the elected Government run the country or does the permanent government run the country? That is one of those disgraces. There is an increase in the mackerel quota. Will it be distributed equitably among those involved in the inshore fisheries? If the Government had a bit of fairness or equality, it would have vibrant coastal communities. However, because it has no political will to drive that equality agenda, the coastal communities are absolutely decimated.

The same can be said for the farming community. The small family farm has practically been eroded of the face of our country. In large part that is down to cartels that are able to set the prices based on their agenda. Everybody in this House knows what I am talking about but nothing has been done about it. There is a cartel where a huge beef baron can tell farmers what they are going to get because he has access to the national data. Again nothing can be done about it even though we all know it is happening. Until there is the political will to challenge those who institutionalise inequality in our society, it will continue as it is.

We have the erosion of post offices in rural communities and the closure of a large number of Garda stations with more due to go. There is also the transport aspect. Elderly people living in peripheral rural areas depend on the small post offices and the postman to get the messages to their house. If that goes, those people are left totally and absolutely on their own and without any support.

The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, said "I accept the need for better rural-proofing of policies across national and local government systems". Every Minister I have ever come across has said the same thing, but none of them have done anything about it. Deputy Brassil is a friend of mine and yet he has said that Fianna Fáil cannot support the Bill.

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I know well he cannot support it, because while in government his party did absolutely nothing. With his party practically in coalition in this Government, it is not going to implement something that is going to try to help deliver equality for the people who live in rural Ireland.

The Minister of State is from rural Ireland and he knows what I am talking about. He will probably respond by reading the script prepared by the people in the Civil Service and say things that undermine what we are saying. I do not mind him trying to undermine that or trying to challenge the Bill we have put before the House. However, I ask him for God's sake not to pay lip service by saying that he is going to do something about it, because my experience and knowledge of what is happening in this House is that rural Ireland is just some place out there that is thrown something now and then and that is all.

Deputy Martin Kenny comes from rural Ireland and is as passionate as I am and as many others are in this House. We have to stand together. I do not give a God damn what political party Members are in. If we do not stand for the communities we represent, we should not be in here.

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