Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I offer my congratulations to the Minister on his promotion and wish him the best of luck with the job. It is a positive development that there is a re-establishment of this Department. It was a regressive and a wrong step by the previous Government to do away with a Department with responsibility for rural and community affairs. Will the Department be adequately funded? What will its budget be for the year? Is it a simple matter of the Taoiseach having gone around to the various Departments, taking a bit from here, there and everywhere and putting it into the Minister's Department? Will the Minister have real powers? Will he be adequately funded? Will he have control over broadband and mobile phone coverage? If one drives around any parts of County Westmeath nowadays, the mobile phone coverage is worse than it was ten years ago.

We talk about the need to have broadband in rural communities, but in some of those communities, such as Loughnavalley and Ballynacargy, there are blackspots where telephone coverage drops every day. The Minister must examine that.

The post offices are another issue. We are told the Minister walked away from having responsibility for the post office network because he did not see a future for it and did not want to be the bearer of bad news. As a result of various Ministers shirking their responsibilities for the post office network over the past 12 months, we are now 12 months further on from putting in place a sustainable plan for the majority of our post offices. The Irish Postmasters Union admits that, unfortunately, some post offices will close. Bobby Kerr has also confirmed that. However, a substantial sum of money must be invested to ensure others do not. I urge the Minister to use his position to ensure the Kerr report is implemented in order that we have a sustainable network into the future.

Commercial rates were mentioned earlier by other speakers. They are not under the Minister's direct control. However, we are discussing a sustainable rural community. The Government launched the plan for revitalising rural Ireland in Ballymahon a number of months ago. In that same week the revaluation of commercial rates was notified to the businesses of Longford and Westmeath. People in Granard, Ballymahon, Moate, Mullingar, Ballynacargy, Castlepollard, Kilbeggan and elsewhere were notified of increases of up to 400%. That is unsustainable and unreflective of the business they are doing in their respective businesses. A pause button must be pressed. We must state this will not take place and a new way of calculating rates will be introduced next year because people are worried they will be unable to pay their commercial rates.

I will conclude with a question. How will money be allocated? I thank the Minister for supporting the provision of a playground in my old school in Ballynacargy recently. It was fortunate to get it. Another project in Westmeath was supported too. I am told Westmeath got 20% of the funding that Mayo received. The Minister is a good man for delivering funding to Mayo. I say "well done", as the Minister is a constituency representative like the rest of us. However, there is more than County Mayo in rural Ireland. It also includes Longford, Westmeath, Roscommon and Meath. Other Deputies have spoken about their respective constituencies. We want to see fair play. The Minister should not abuse his position for the betterment of his county. Of course he wishes to invest in his county, but he should not do it to the detriment of every other county. He should live up to the commitment given by the Independent Alliance to restore the local improvement schemes. Two budgets have been produced but the local improvement schemes have not been restored. The Minister must ensure they are restored in the forthcoming budget, because they are critical for rural Ireland.

See this speech in context