Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to try to focus on the positive here. The general consensus among everyone is that rural Ireland has huge problems. Deputies from every political party and none, including those who are in government and those who support the Government from the Independent benches, recognise that rural Ireland has suffered from under-investment. That is acknowledged in the programme for Government. There is a sense that rural-proofing needs to happen and that a system needs to be developed to facilitate it.

The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, set out a range of reasons for the Government's position on this legislation. She said the Bill would require too much work and too much analysis. She referred to the difficulty caused by the fact that the scope of the Bill means that it covers many Departments. She mentioned the Dublin Port authority as an example of a State body that has nothing to do with rural Ireland. We understand that point. Nobody is saying that this will work everywhere, or that every Department will have to be rural-proofed. It would be quite absurd to make such a suggestion. Common sense will apply, naturally enough. The Dublin Port authority will have no problem crossing the bar when it comes to rural-proofing. This Bill seeks to ensure the budgets of Departments with nationwide responsibilities, such as the Departments of Education and Skills and Health, will be examined to ensure rural Ireland is getting the same level of provision, at least, as urban Ireland. We are not making that proposal with the aim of taking anything away from urban Ireland. As Deputy Bríd Smith said, many people who live in Dublin and other urban areas are encountering difficulties.

I do not think the Government's reasons for not being able to support our rural-proofing proposal stand up. Its programme for Government suggests that this needs to be done. We are suggesting that rural-proofing should be legislated for to make sure it is guaranteed. We are giving the Government an opportunity to ensure that when it leaves office at some point in the future - it might be in a year or in ten years - people will not be able to point to this as another area in which it has failed. If it accepts this legislation and ensures it works, it will be able to point to this initiative as an example of its success in working with other parties.

The various problems that have been highlighted can be teased out as this Bill advances through Committee and Report Stages. For example, it was suggested that the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, rather than the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, should be dealing with this area. That may very well be true, but this is the first Government that has had a full Minister with responsibility for rural affairs. There has always been a senior Minister with responsibility for agriculture. That is the reason we have proposed that the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine should be the key person in this regard. At least we know there will always be a Minister for agriculture. This aspect of the Bill can be broadened out to give a role to several Ministers, if that is what needs to be done. All these things can be done on Committee and Report Stages.

Many Deputies spoke about the many problems in rural Ireland. It is important to mention that there are many magnificent things about rural Ireland as well. We need to harness the huge potential that exists in rural Ireland. When I travel around my constituency, I see Ben Bulben in its magnificence as it overlooks Sligo Bay and I see surfers going out to sea in Ballyshannon and Bundoran in County Donegal. When I am in County Leitrim, I see the waterfall in Glencar and I see people boating on the River Shannon in Carrick-on-Shannon. This level of potential exists in the tourism industry alone, but many people cannot access it because of this country's poor road infrastructure. Many people who would like to live in that area because of its beauty and its quality of life do not do so because of the lack of access to quality broadband. Many industries do not locate in that part of the world because of the lack of sufficient infrastructure to ensure they can prosper.

I recently spoke to representatives of an English company who were thinking of moving some of their manufacturing to Ireland as a result of Brexit. One of the company's senior executives has a connection to County Leitrim and considered whether some manufacturing could be moved to that county. When the company's officials looked at the possibility, they realised that the travel time to Dublin Port was too long. They decided that if they are going to move some of their business to Ireland - I hope they will do so - they will locate somewhere nearer Dublin because of the travel times involved. It is mainly down to the road network.

Rural Ireland needs certain things to happen if it is to fulfil its magnificent potential. The production economics for manufacturing businesses located in rural Ireland are better than anywhere else because houses are cheaper both to buy and to rent. Lower salaries can be paid because the cost of living is not as high as it is in urban areas. All those things are advantages that businesses can have if we can get them into rural Ireland. We have magnificent potential in many ways. Ireland and its rural communities have a positive story to tell. The biggest problem in our rural communities is that they do not have enough people in them. That is what this is about. If we can get more people into rural Ireland, we can change things around. The only way we can get more people to come to live and stay in rural Ireland is to make sure the necessary infrastructure exists in rural Ireland.

I remember speaking a few years ago to a group of consultants led by Peter Quinn, who is a former president of the GAA. He drew up a report on the things that attract IDA Ireland businesses to come to certain areas. Among the key things mentioned in the report were access to quality education, access to quality health services and good infrastructure. One might not think the quality of a local school would matter in these circumstances, but it does. If a company is planning to send its executives to live in an area, it will want to be sure that those executives' family members can access quality education. Those things need to be put in place outside of Dublin. We see every day that Dublin is choking. We need to move out into rural Ireland and the regions. The only way to do that is to invest in the regions. There would be a return on such investment. If €100 million were spent on the road network in rural Ireland, it would have a return. It is probable that 40% of that expenditure would come back into the Exchequer within a year between VAT, excise duty, income tax and all the other things that happen. That is not counting the money that workers would spend in local shops and communities when they are building such roads.

The Government needs to understand that these are not costs. In most cases, these are investments which will have a return greater than the cost initially laid out. Even in the medium and long term, they will have a significant benefit because they unlock potential. County Leitrim has the largest number of graduates per head of population. More people per head of population in County Leitrim go on to third level education than in any other county, yet there are practically no jobs for graduates there. That needs to change. If we could change that, we could revolutionise what rural Ireland is about.

The Bill is about putting such a commitment into legislation. It is about changing it from something we just say is a great idea. We can say we have all these problems and we can all bitch away about them but there is nothing at the end of it. This Bill provides an opportunity to do something about this.

I appeal to the Minister of State and the Government to withdraw its amendment and allow the Bill continue to Committee Stage. There we can work out the problems, the little details and the tweaking. We will co-operate and work together. If the Government does so, when it leaves office, whenever that will be, it can point to this as a success not just for rural Ireland but for urban Ireland as well. As was pointed out by many this evening, urban Ireland is choking. This is an opportunity to do something for the whole country, which is good, positive and will make a difference.

I commend the Bill to the House. Hopefully, when it is voted on next Thursday, we will get it through.

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