Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak on behalf of the Labour Party on the important topic of rural preservation, regeneration and revitalisation. Rural-proofing of decisions would ensure rural Ireland was not sidelined or overlooked but would get its just desserts. It is an important principle. All we are seeking is fair play, to which we are entitled. This cause is one to which I have not just come in recent times but is one which has underpinned the Labour Party philosophy which I developed and articulated in the early 1990s. It is party policy.

The Government has a number of issues with the Bill. They are relevant and cannot be discounted, but they could be addressed by Deputy Gino Kenny, the proposer of the Bill, in a spirit of co-operation. I compliment him on bringing it forward. The Labour Party broadly supports its objectives, while acknowledging that there are issues that could be sorted out. As a party, we are unequivocal and extremely passionate about ensuring economic growth reaches every part of Ireland in order that families will be able to continue to live, work and raise children in rural areas and play an important role in their communities. We need a real and effective charter for rural Ireland that identifies clearly key issues so as to better support rural areas. There must be more active participation in rural development initiatives developed by communities, not by bureaucrats in imposing their own solutions which are generalised, idealistic and theoretical. It must be done using a bottom-up approach to support economic and community development and with stronger action to keep family farms and rural entrepreneurs viable.

We must also address structural issues such as the age and gender profile of the agriculture sector. While it is not the only active industry in rural Ireland, it is the backbone of the rural economy. We must ensure better co-ordination between local enterprise offices and local authorities to support local enterprise projects and minimise the red tape which is strangling initiatives. In the recent general election the Labour Party proposed initiatives to deal with some of these issues, but they were drowned out in the maelstrom of electoral razzmatazz.

We have had our fill of glossy reports. What we want are real, effective and substantial resources. We do not want to receive a pittance which is tantamount to, metaphorically, doffing the State's hat at long-standing issues which will cause the death of rural communities. There has been a fall-off in population. We see the future of rural schools being threatened, football teams disappearing and churches, Garda stations and post offices closing, all because, as Deputy Martin Ferris said, the population is dropping. We need a town revival programme, safer rural communities and lower cost services for rural families, not just farmers. We also need more incentives to support young and small farmers to encourage them to enter the artisan food and organic farming sector. There should be targeted action to regenerate derelict sites and increase funding for rural businesses and projects. We must build thriving hubs of economic activity across every region. It should not stop at Lucan, Newlands Cross or outside the Pale.

I recall the establishment of CEDRA and the rural development economic zones which saw some investment in the rural economy. Despite the multiplicity of recommendations emanating from CEDRA under the chairmanship of Mr. Pat Spillane who was very dedicated and committed, only a paltry amount of a few million euro was allocated to drive them forward. It was a missed opportunity because the initiatives were an attempt at rebalancing investment in a targeted way. I am aware of the launch on 8 January by the Ministers, Deputies Heather Humphreys and Denis Naughten, and the Taoiseach of Realising our Rural Potential: Action Plan for Rural Development.

Some of us who live in rural heartlands, like myself, are echoing the cries of the late John Healy who continually outlined in his brilliant book, No One Shouted Stop, how thriving towns and villages were decimated and became, in effect, lasting monuments to our failures and to what was essentially the turning of a blind eye to the myriad of problems by the State. In effect, such towns and villages fell foul of non-integrated Government activity, policies and actions.

We need a more joined-up approach in Government policy on agriculture so that we maximise the potential links between food production and tourism. Smaller scale producers need to supported to go after niche markets through innovative use of protected food designations. I am very strongly supportive of Rural Economic Development Zones, REDZ, to better support businesses and producers in small towns and villages. This needs a fund of at least €20 million to €25 million to give it real impetus going forward. It is time that a targeted social enterprise scheme was established which could be funded from the local property tax to facilitate the reopening of key high street facilities such as pubs, shops and post offices which formerly formed the heart of rural communities. Local authorities need to continue to support town renewal plans so as to allow towns to devise their own local development plans and improve local infrastructure and amenities. These plans would assist in preserving and restoring local heritage sites and developing a vision for the future of rural and urban areas.

The Government's rural action plan lists 270 actions to be carried out by various agencies across Government, as well as utilising existing plans. It refers to the revitalisation of 600 towns and villages, improved access to broadband and the arts, improved tourism activity trails and so forth. However, the hole in the bucket is the level of resources allocated. A total of €60 million across roughly 32 counties amounts to €2 million per county, which is totally insufficient. We need hundreds of millions of euro to re-balance the country.

The CAP accounts for 37% of the EU budget but there is ongoing pressure from some member states to reduce that proportion and to direct EU spending to new issues such as migration. There is also huge competition for funding for other more traditional policies. The UK's departure from the EU will reduce the overall budget by between 5% and 10%. This will put significant pressure on the availability of funding for the future CAP. While the CAP budget for Pillars I and II is funded until 2020, there will be a big hole in the budget thereafter which could have significant consequences for rural communities and farmers in particular. It represents a real and substantial threat.

The provision of high speed broadband and the digitalisation of rural areas can transform those areas. The Ludgate Hub in Skibbereen is an outstanding example of how such a transformation can be effective. It was Ireland's first rural digital hub, providing users with 1000 megabytes of super fast broadband. It provides state of the art co-working spaces and makes room for professionals in Skibbereen in West Cork. Since opening in April 2016, it has been a beacon of success. The World Bank has suggested that a slight increase in broadband speeds can raise local GDP by up to 10%. Once super fast broadband reaches an area, success follows. Clearly, connectivity is the key. We do not need to reinvent the wheel. The Ludgate Hub serves as a beacon of innovation for rural Ireland and this can be replicated across the country if there is a will. Talk is cheap, however but bringing together the whole community and installing the necessary infrastructure can bring results. Let us resurrect rural villages and bring people back to rural Ireland.

The local needs criteria in the planning code, as part of county development plans, is about to be eliminated and die and that will help. In villages of between 300 and 400 people no rates or charges should be levied on local shops or businesses. They are all struggling to survive and compete against the likes of Aldi and Lidl in the large county towns, many of which were granted permission to locate on the edge of those towns and in out of town centres, which was another bad planning decision. If we do not recognise the importance of rural shops as cornerstones of rural sustainability, they will disappear off the landscape. In the next four to five years many of these shops will go to the wall, helped to their end by State and bureaucratic statutorily imposed charges and levies and neglect. Let us wake up and smell the coffee while the embers are still alive. Shops and post offices have the potential for shared community services and to act as multi-purpose spaces for the community.

We cannot hang our hat on the same old tried and failed formulas. In Ballymore Eustace, which is part of the Ceann Comhairle's constituency, the local postmaster, Mr. Sean Fogarty has established a pioneering hub, offering online consultations with doctors and other services from his post office. That typifies the entrepreneurship that is required to save our post office network. All this baloney, talk and theory is nonsense. We need flexible and innovative thinking which is not blinkered or institutionalised, qualities which have bedevilled Irish bureaucratic views for decades.

Last year 22 newsagents disappeared in rural Ireland. The National Federation of Retail Newsagents has called for the creation of a dedicated ombudsman for micro retailers who are being crushed by the big boys and driven out of town. Let us do like John Healy, let us shout "Stop". Instead of throwing €20 million or €30 million as window dressing, let us pour hundreds of millions into rural Ireland. Everyone of us in rural areas pays tax but we are disadvantaged. We do not have Luas or buses passing by our gates. Very often we are thumbing a lift, confined to a bike or forced to walk. No-one knows that better than the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne.

I spoke about the potential of the fishing industry last night. I do not want to go off on a tangent, but that is one area on which the Minister has a good grasp. I wholeheartedly support this Bill, as a rural person who has seen at first hand the devastation that has been wrought in rural Ireland.

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