Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I know it is a veterinary term. The people in the country want what they are entitled to - no more and no less. The Chair is a very fine representative of her constituency of Galway West and of rural Ireland. We are not interested in tokenism. Rural-proofing is needed in every Department to help this new Department. Other Departments should not be envious of the new Department. However, it has no budget. It has a name, but it has had no launch or christening. That will not even be considered. I am worried that this is tokenism on the part of the Minister. We fought hard for this. We were promised one thing by the Taoiseach during the talks.

We were promised that this Government would be different. He could not form a Government and has retired, God be with him. He said he would change the permanent government, the Civil Service, and make it reflective of the new politics. He did not do that and it seems it cannot be done. I hope the new Minister does it. I hope he brings in hand-picked people who are prepared to do the stuff for Ireland, not talk about it.

Deputy Eamon Ryan had a conversion regarding rural Ireland a few weeks ago when he met farmers. He should know that the vast majority of farmers are good farmers. They mind the land and husband it well, as they do the environment. I served in government with the Deputy when they took away our car parking at the back of this building and now we cannot park anywhere. They put grass on it and we have to pay a fortune to rent a space. I would not mind if they had put sheep or goats on it but it is grass, which has to be mowed and maintained. These are silly things. When I brought forward a proposal for a water recycling project in rural national schools using roof water for toilets and washing the yards, the former Minister, John Gormley, would not hear of it. This was a simple project. A very innovative group came to me and said they could put such systems in schools for approximately €12,000 and it would have given a great education to children in the school, but he was more worried about stag hunting and other things. One day I said to him he would stop the cat chasing the mouse. That Government became silly. Projects could have been done but were not and they have not been done yet. We need to educate our young people, though they will educate us anyway because they are good on the environment and with issues like litter and Tidy Towns, etc. We should not be talking about bringing water to Dublin when 48% of it is leaking from pipes. That is another attack on rural Ireland. We take everything from rural Ireland and give the rubbish dumps back to it. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae spoke about moving the Red Cow to Skellig Michael but we have to do something about it. We need a road project to sort it out.

We must let the permanent government know that rural Ireland exists. We are a proud, vibrant people but we cannot take any more knocks. We have been knocked and kicked and bureaucracy has strangled us. We are like a man who has fallen into the water and cannot swim out - I cannot swim, by the way - because bureaucracy is dragging us down in every area. Deputy Ryan said he was all for building houses in rural Ireland but I did not find that when he was in government. I welcome his conversion because we have to build houses in rural Ireland. I have dozens of young couples who want to build houses on farmers' lands and have bought sites. They have the money and the courage, the vision and the passion to settle down and have a family and their own home but they cannot get planning permission and people are going to the cities where people are forced to sleep in little hovels.

The policies are there but the planners are getting more powerful all the time so nothing can be delivered. The Minister has to bring in his own doers, of which there are some in the Civil Service. We had the voting machines and other scandals, other hare-brained ideas from experts which I railed against at the time. When their expert proposals flop, however, they are not heard of. As Deputy Collins said, one should always ask the community or a busy person, a duine gnóthach. If one wants something done in Ireland, one should ask the community and voluntary associations, which I am proud of and all of which I can list - from Canon Hayes of Muintir na Tíre to the ICA, from which 55 good women are coming tomorrow to visit our Parliament. We must try to keep the work they do and the values they instil because they hold things together.

There is also the scaremongering about, and attacks on, the church on account of the baptism rule. The Government has failed utterly to provide enough places but it suits it and others in here to attack the church on account of the baptism rule. It is a fallacy peddled here and by people in the right-wing liberal media. It is fashionable to bash the church but we did not build enough schools. There are playschools and naíonraí. I was chairman of a committee that set up a naíonra, which is still employing 21 people and looks after families from 20 or 30 miles away. It is a voluntary company limited by guarantee and we went through hoops to get funding from Pobal.

This Government has no real interest in rural Ireland and the Bill has serious deficiencies. The Minister might address concerns about whether the North-South bodies, the Gaeltacht, the rural social scheme, Tús, farm assist and rural transport will come under his remit. Will they or will they not? Cad a dhéanfaimid feasta gan adhmad? Will we have a bus? What will we have? It is all a fiction. The Government announced it in a blaze of glory but there is nothing. The Minister is busy in his constituency but I do not know what he will do in the portfolio. Will he have an office or a secretary? Will he have anything to do until the statutory instruments or ministerial orders are moved. We are buying a pig in a poke. It is like buying a lucky bag in a shop when we were ladeens, buachaillí. We were glad if we got something good but disappointed if we got an old tumbler or something. The Bill is nothing but a sop to appease the people of rural Ireland and to pull the wool over their eyes. The wool has been pulled up now, though, and they found the Government out after the actions of the former Minister, Big Phil the Destroyer, who is now off on a rich pension in Europe or playing golf in Kerry.

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