Dáil debates

Wednesday, 12 July 2017

Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages

 

8:45 pm

Photo of Peadar TóibínPeadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 3, line 12, to delete “An Roinn Forbartha Tuaithe agus Pobail” and substitute “An Roinn Uile-Éireann Forbartha Réigiúnda, Tuaithe agus Pobail”.

Politics is a funny business. Sometimes we get wrapped up in the minutiae. It is easy to get confused on certain Bills, but it is very important that we hold a very simple yardstick up to anything to do with Bills, whether it comes from the Government or the Opposition, and that yardstick should be to ask if it will benefit people or not. If this yardstick is used for this Bill, it is clear that the creation of this Department will benefit people, especially people in rural areas. It is very important to do that. It will also benefit the areas of arts, heritage and the Gaeltacht, because that Department was a mish-mash of a Department in reality, and separation will mean that it is possible for different Ministers to focus properly on particular issues.

It is important to note that if this Bill does not pass today it is likely that it will be October before the particular Department will be up and running. I do not believe that it will be useful for us to go back to our own communities and explain that we prevented a Department from being up and running until next October. Notwithstanding that, very valid questions have been asked over the past number of minutes, including what functions are to be delivered to this Department and when those functions will be delivered, and what other steps are necessary for this Department to get up and running. Are statutory instruments necessary? Are ministerial orders necessary? When exactly will people be able to contact the Department and actually see that it is functioning?

On the specifics of the amendments we have tabled, the reason I included "regional" in the title of the proposed Department is that regional concerns differ from rural concerns. There can be a rural area three miles outside Navan and that is in the greater Dublin area. Regional concerns, the fact that there is a two-tier society, and population decline in counties such as Mayo and Donegal, are different concerns. Their concerns centre on the fact that the urban areas in those locations are not functioning properly and cannot compete with Dublin's growth. Most young families today, which need two jobs to survive, are being forced to locate in large cities, especially on the east coast. They do not have a choice if they want to get two jobs that would cover all their expenses. As a result the population on the east coast is getting younger while on the west coast it is getting older. That is why I believe it is necessary for this Department to focus on regional issues. Both issues are connected but they are different.

The third title I seek to include in this Department addresses the all-island spatial regional development plan. I understand that the Minister, Deputy Ring, will function under the cross-Border ministerial forum but we have not shifted one iota since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. That is a long time ago and we are still functioning on that basis. We are asking in this amendment that we take a step further than that and include in the title of a Department within this State an objective that we organise the infrastructure, the population, the economy, and the services of this island on an all-island basis. That invisible line is so disastrous for the communities living along the Border and will cause many problems in the run up to Brexit that I suggest we develop our infrastructure and spatial development on an all-island basis. That is why I seek to have this in here and ask the Minister to include it in the title.

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