Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

While we are talking about rural Ireland and about Kerry, where I come from, I will say what I said one of the first times I spoke in the House. I firmly believe that we will not get fair play in Kerry until the Red Cow is moved out to Bull Rock in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. I believe we will not get fair play until that time. The Minister has departed but the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, is here and I am sure he will interact and will tell the Minister what we say here. What is going to be the difference between the Minister holding the rural and community development brief and the Minister holding the rural affairs brief? How will this change better serve the people in rural Kerry? What parts of the programme will the Minister be in charge of? The farm assist scheme is a vital way of helping small farmers in rural Ireland. Will that be part of the Minister's brief? The rural social scheme is also very important for farmers who have little to do and little income. That scheme helps such farmers greatly if they can get on it. Will that be part of the Minister's brief?

What budget will the Minister have? When we were upstairs in the Department of the Taoiseach a year and a few months ago discussing the programme for Government, I asked the then Minister, Deputy Noonan, whether additional money would be provided if there was a new department for rural affairs. He said there would not be and that it would have to come from the other Departments. I am glad the Minister, Deputy Ring, has returned. Will he get more money for rural Ireland? I take this opportunity to compliment Deputy Noonan and thank him for the great work he did for the people of Ireland. Perhaps one of the routes he took in respect of one aspect was not so successful, but overall I thank him for his great service to the country and to the people. How strong will the Minister, Deputy Ring be on getting money for rural Ireland? I know that he is a forceful man. I ask him to fight tooth and nail for the people in rural areas. He is from a rural county himself. Many Ministers seem to forget that when they come up to Dublin. I hope the Minister does not.

Since I came up here I have been asking the Minister about the local improvement schemes. First he told me that the local authorities could spend money on the local improvement schemes. One cannot spend money one does not have. Until the Minister gets money for the local authorities they cannot proceed with the local improvement schemes.

As I have said, people in rural areas such as Kerry are as much entitled to roads to their doors as people in Dublin 4. The Department would like to say that those are private roads. They are no such thing. There are no gates across them. They are public rights of way in the same manner as the small, third-class roads that were taken in charge. These roads to people's doors were omitted and should have been taken in charge by local authorities. Those people should get funding. They are paying motor tax and property tax and most have their own water and pumps or, if they do not, are on group water schemes. They make no hullabaloo about this and are costing the State nothing in that regard. However, they are entitled to good roads to their doors.

I ask the Minister, Deputy Ring, and the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, if they will be supporting the Road Traffic (Fixed Penalty – Drink Driving) Bill 2017 proposed by the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, which will isolate people in rural Ireland even more than they are already. God almighty, people can currently go to their local pub and have a pint and a glass and take an hour or an hour and a half to do so and talk to whoever is left in those places. That is their only outlet. Is the Government going to deprive those people in rural Ireland of that? The Minister and Minister of State are from rural constituencies. Will they further affect and hurt people in rural Ireland? If they do so, they will not be serving the people who elected them. I know the areas from which the Deputies come. They must consider their position in that regard, take a stand and ensure that people in rural Ireland will not be not hurt further. Those people are entitled to travel and to have a social outlet. If that is taken from them, they will be looking at the four walls.

Will the Minister, Deputy Ring, be in charge of the Leader programme? There has been no Leader programme since 2013. The Minister should seriously consider its reinstatement because the development companies that divvied out that fund over 25 years did a great job. It was a bottom-up approach. It is now coming from county managers and directors of services who do not honestly understand the value of rural communities. Something has to be done about that. The summer recess is approaching but many small entrepreneurs are awaiting funding.

One must have regard to the great work done by Tidy Towns committees, most of which operate on an entirely voluntary basis. Many of Ireland's little villages would have fallen asunder long ago if it were not for those committees painting facades and the fronts of houses and making places look a little bit better and more enticing to visit or revisit.

There are many things wrong in respect of planning. As I have said on several occasions, planning in rural areas is again becoming a problem. For several years, things rolled along evenly enough but there are now problems such as a situation where five families cannot obtain planning permission for access to the national secondary road between Killarney and Barraduff because the Taoiseach, when he was Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport in 2012, signed something that gave the Department the right to disallow access to that road. I ask any Member going to Killarney to pay attention to that issue. It is a mile before the Lissivigeen roundabout and there is at least a mile of straight road where those five people were coming out using existing accesses but they were refused planning permission. That is not fair. The Government is talking about providing housing. Those people were not looking for anything for free but just wanted planning permission to build their houses. There are now designations by the local authority that planning permission cannot be granted in respect of areas under urban pressure. That could be fine but maybe it is not so fine because people have a democratic right to build houses in the same way as anyone else. Local people in an area affected by urban generated pressure can buy a site and get permission to build 300 yards from the place they were born and brought up in. A person with a landholding can do so, but a person buying a site next door cannot. Those issues need to be addressed as a matter of urgency. There is a Bill to allow unfinished developments be completed. There are people with one house who are in the same position. Will they be included in that Bill? If they are not, it is totally unfair and undemocratic.

The repair-and-lease scheme will not help people in some villages because it does not apply to areas where there is no demand or pressure for social housing. The scheme should be expanded to allow people, especially those in rural areas, to take advantage of it. All the houses that are on the Department's list as being vacant are vacant but one cannot live in them until they are done up.

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