Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill. I wish the Minister, Deputy Ring, the best of luck in his new Department. He comes from rural Ireland. He needs all guns blazing and every Department working with him. He will need plenty of armour because he is taking on a difficult portfolio. No Member should say that it is going to be simple. Rural Ireland has some great aspects but there are other areas and issues that have been neglected for many years. If Members want to bring a balance to all regions, which I know is the aim of the Minister, we need to ensure that this is done right. Rushing through a Bill without giving the Minister fair play is not sufficient. He must have everything he requires to deal with this in the proper way. Clear answers are not being received to the questions that Members ask the Department regarding what is happening with rural affairs. It is like a plane without wings at an airport that is trying to take off. The Department needs to ensure that everything is right before take-off.

The Department with the second-lowest budget receives nearly twice that proposed for the Minister's Department, which has been allocated approximately €170 million. The budget for the Department of the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs is approximately €360 or €370 million. That would not do anything for a Department.

Other Deputies have looked for a ray of hope to be sent to the people of rural Ireland in recent weeks. I am sure the Minister is trying or has tried to do that. That ray of hope could be that the people of rural Ireland will have one of their own fighting for them. I give the Minister one thing - if he gets the money, he will be good at delivering and giving those people the ray of hope they deserve.

In my opinion, the first step to bring hope to people is by putting that Department into the heart of rural Ireland, not saying, as we hear day in day out, "Sure, everything is in Dublin. What can you do?" I believe that would be the first signal of intent. The Minister might disagree but I believe that is the first step we should have taken.

The furthest part away from Dublin is the islands and from my understanding, the Minister does not have control of the running of the islands. They are rural Ireland, they are people and they matter as well. Whoever is blocking this, the Minister should be able to pick á la cartewhatever is required. Rural Ireland is made up of nearly a full Government of 14 different Departments the decisions the Minister makes and over which he has power will determine the way forward.

We saw yesterday evening - I saw pictures of the Minister - welcome news about entrepreneurship in the BMW region. When one goes right through local areas, even if it is a community in a small area where, be it for the football team, the Tidy Towns or a charity, people on winter nights gather together planning different events to make their communities better, there is a desire among those people to improve their area, village, province and country. These people do it voluntarily day in, day out and we need to ensure that rewards are given.

The first question I would have is whether the Minister, Deputy Ring, has control over rural social schemes, RSS, or the community employment, CE, schemes? Has the Minister control over ensuring services for entrepreneurs? I note he spoke of the LEOs yesterday evening and a lot of work has been done. However, for any young person starting off, there are still a lot of hurdles to jump. As I stated earlier, when people raise money in the local area, one will hear someone asking what the area has but there may be someone who is making concrete stakes or someone doing hire work or there may be a shopkeeper. The amount of donations given and the willingness to make areas better are unbelievable and that is great. We need to start helping those people. I welcome that regeneration is starting. However, in small towns, for example, we need to think outside the box. Should we, for example, take the VAT off if one paints the outside of one's house or business in a town. I have seen a few towns over the past few weeks where people got together and, in the evenings and at weekends, went round and tidied everything up. They got paint, and even painted the poles for the lights in the town. One can see what they have done when one drives through that. It regenerates. To put it simply, it makes a place look good. The more of such activity that is encouraged the better, but one has to give an incentive. I believe a Minister for rural affairs should be able to tell a Minister for Finance that the Department will give an incentive for everyone to do up the front of their shops or paint them and will give the VAT off. I am aware that under EU law the Minister cannot just make that willy-nilly, but he can give a rebate on it. That is quite allowable.

No one knows better than the Minister, Deputy Ring, - I have been down in Westport at Allergan - that one great legacy we have heading to the west is the road from Dublin to Galway. In fairness, it is a terrific road. In a few months, another wing of that will have been added on, which will be a significant help. However, heading to Deputy Ring's own country, when one goes past Mullingar and the road starts to narrow, it is that bit tougher to encourage investment, as we all are trying to do. If one is behind a 35x tractor while trying to get to Castlebar fairly quickly, and there is only a single lane with traffic coming against one, to put it simply one will be stuck for a while. This is one issue that I believe will ignite both the South of Ireland and the Northern part, as well as Donegal. There are good things happening as well, such as that the A5 will be completed down to Aughnacloy, but we should be looking at a spur from there onto the M1. We need infrastructure down along the west coast and the Minister is well familiar with the western corridor route of road infrastructure. Funnily, this is not in what Deputies would refer to as "my constituency". Part of it is, but it is for all of the people in an area. These are matters that need to be teased out.

The Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, seated beside the Minister, is from an area where a road is badly needed but people are objecting and trying to block progress, which is intolerable. People out in Connemara are entitled to a good road the same as if there is one beside me or anybody else. These people seem to make a business out of objecting to the likes of this. The port at Galway port also needs deepening.

There is much that can be done but the Minister must have the power to overrule another Department if there is stuff going on that is blocking progress. No doubt the Minister will have all the ideas in his head. The Minister will deliver if the paperwork and the blocks on the road are taken out of his way but, unfortunately, we do not seem to be able to cut through the likes of this red tape that is blocking progress in different parts of the country.

The banking sector was touched on earlier. I read today in a newspaper article that we have bailed them out for €60 billion and they do not even think it worthwhile now to put a face in front of us within their branches. We met Bank of Ireland a few weeks ago and put proposals to it, and asked why it always go out with a negative story. We asked why, for example, the bank does not go to the credit union in a town and say, "If we cannot deliver this service, we will team up with you.", and give them X amount in the year and bring out a story that together they would deliver this service, rather than merely willy-nilly state that they would cut the service out. The bank did that without even having a bit of regard for those with small businesses who have gone through a hard recession, have driven on after it or given employment. It is not that these people are millionaires or anything. They are just surviving and have, maybe, changed some of their business to ensure that they kept a service going in an area. As I said to the banks that day, if one takes only 4% or 5% out of a town and tells them to head off to the urban area to get their change or that if they want to look at someone behind a counter, they will have to go to the urban area and if those customers start doing any bit of shopping in that urban area, the 4% or 5% could sound the death knell of the smaller towns.

The Minister will be well familiar with and has put work into the post office set up and new ideas are coming on stream. They need to come on stream. What I would always say is it is grand talking about it but we have to use them as well and ensure that we send letters or whatever. Pressure will come on them down the road.

Unfortunately, according to media reports, the broadband situation seems to be deteriorating. There will be a briefing on Thursday and let us see how that goes.

The bid to host the Rugby World Cup is great and everyone across the political divide agrees with it. I wonder whether the Minister will get involved. It is great to see what has been done with Croke Park. We also have the Aviva Stadium, Thomond Park, Páirc Uí Chaoimh, which is a fine stadium, and Semple Stadium. The west of Ireland needs a focal point of one good stadium, where we could host Ed Sheeran if we wanted, or a rugby, Gaelic or soccer match. We must come together to ensure this happens for the west of Ireland, which deserves it. We have plenty of bed spaces. We should ensure that matches are distributed evenly. We could even have conference centre in the stadium. Let us be equal to everybody else.

The Minister needs to have a say in the Common Agriculture Policy, CAP. I do not agree with an oil sheik getting €150,000 and fellows in Aughagower, Glenamaddy or Strokestown getting €3,000 or €4,000, just because the guy was lucky in 2000, 2001 or 2002 and killed a lot of cattle and had a lot of punches in the bullocks' ears at the time. I know it will become more environmental, but the Minister will need to have a say in its distribution. The CAP budget will be affected by approximately €100 million because of Brexit, but we are not watching the big problem that may be coming down the line, which is what the eastern bloc countries will fight to try to get.

There is still plenty in the kitty. As the Minister knows, the family farm is crucial to the local community. It is the small farmer who buys a bag of nuts, a loaf of bread, a pound of ham and a pair of Wellington boots in the shop. The general hardware shop in rural areas is very important and helps to create a few jobs. We are losing farms at present and there is no point in saying we are not. According to the statistics that came out last week, the age profile of farmers in general along the west coast is higher than in other parts. If we do not ensure the next round of the CAP is fair to the family farm, the Minister will have an awful job on his hands.

At present, there is a lot of pressure with regard to forestry. I cannot understand why a farmer has to seek planning permission but that the land involved can be sold to someone else. Every time trees are planted on a farm, it means a family leaves the area. I know we need a certain amount of trees, but it should be equal in all parts of the country. If we sow five acres in one section of the country there should be five acres in another section of the country, and it should not be tilted towards losing a lot of people in one section of the country.

There is land in Limerick and surrounding areas that is designated for the protection of hen harriers. Farmers in those areas cannot plant trees or farm their land because they cannot clean drains or use mowers. Something has been put on their land which is affecting them. There was also destocking of hills. That is fair enough if they had to be destocked for the environment. The problem now, however, is that if someone previously had 100 or 500 sheep but this has reduced to 40, the 40 sheep will not eat every blade of grass and they will go for the sweetest bit. Then an inspector will come out and state that 20% of the area was not grazed and the farmer will lose the payment.

These are the pressures. Many good things are also happening and it is not all doom and gloom. Every day people fight tooth and nail, and there is no better place to live than rural Ireland. We have freedom, fresh air and, above all, people have their own independence no matter where they go in their area.

The Minister needs to put the boot in and get more for rural areas. I know he would have more of a workload and that there would probably be more pressure on him as a result. However, I rate the Minister as someone who would never be afraid of a challenge or pressure. He needs to ensure that he gets control of more stuff. The Minister needs to keep an eye on county councils for the simple reason that the budget has been reduced by up to 40% since 2008 or 2009. We need to keep the roads and infrastructure in good shape because they are crucial to development. The Minister was involved in the Wild Atlantic Way, which has been a huge success. Entrepreneurship is part of it and what people have done in an area to drive it on. People took risks and showed example. Will the Minister fight tooth and nail? The islands should be a no-brainer. The Minister should have the final say on a lot of stuff. This would make it better because, in fairness, he understands the position.

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