Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I, too, congratulate the Minister on his appointment to the Cabinet. However, when one considers the portfolio the Taoiseach has decided to allocate to him, it is clear he would have more power if he were a Minister of State without portfolio floating around various Departments. Henry Kissinger once asked who he should call when he wanted to call Europe because he did not know. Who do I call when I want to talk about rural broadband? Not the Minister, Deputy Ring. Who do I call when I want to talk about rural post offices?

Not the Minister, Deputy Ring. Who do I call when I want to talk about rural roads? Not the Minister, Deputy Ring. Who do I call when I want to talk about rural Garda stations? Not the Minister, Deputy Ring. Who do I call when I want to talk about most rural issues? Not the Minister, Deputy Ring. That is at the heart of our reservations about what the Taoiseach has decided to do. This is a matter for him and the Government. Presumably, it was not something to which the Minister adhered. The Taoiseach decided it, but that is the problem. As Deputy O'Keeffe stated, the Minister's portfolio is too narrow. He has the smallest budget of all Departments and its work is confined to particular areas. A significant opportunity to tell rural Ireland once and for all that its issues are being addressed properly has been lost because of a misunderstanding of what is required.

This Department is just a hodge-podge of issues. The Department's budget and the number of lines it will have are extremely small. It will have the Leader programme and the Dormant Account Fund. It might have the Western Development Commission. It will have the town and village regeneration scheme, which is pitifully small. The Department will have so little. The Minister is not really the Minister for rural affairs. He is the Minister for a small number of rural programmes. That is the problem - the Minister does not have the necessary clout. As another Deputy called it, he is the Minister for paper clips, or at least rural paper clips. They literally are paper clips in the overall scheme of Government spending. I mean no disrespect to Deputy Ring and we are delighted to see him at the Cabinet table. I am sure that he will raise a voice, but when it comes to rural broadband, the Minister, Deputy Naughten, has responsibility. The same applies to post offices. Famously, Deputy Ring did not want them. All of these issues should be within one Department so that there can be coherence in strategy and someone to deal with those issues that affect rural Ireland and impact on people's lives. Most people in rural Ireland will look at this and point out that they cannot avail of Leader funding, for example. They need rural broadband, they need to use their post offices and they need to ring their local Garda stations but none of the areas that have been allocated to this portfolio apply to them.

Deputy Ó Cuív's Committee Stage amendments will go some way towards addressing that issue, but there must be a broader vision. The type of vision that Fianna Fáil offered in the previous election, in fact. I remember Deputy Ó Cuív enunciating it clearly on television during the little bit that I watched. I believe that it was during a debate in County Mayo or somewhere like that.

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