Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As Minister with responsibility for natural resources and inland fisheries, I welcome the clear focus in budget 2018 on sustainability. I firmly believe that the sustainable management of our natural resources are of vital national importance and to this end I am pleased to have secured €26.5 million for natural resources in budget 2018. The funding will allow my Department to carry on rehabilitation works in the former mining areas of Avoca, County Wicklow, and Silvermines in County Tipperary as well as ongoing works by the Geological Survey of Ireland in the Tellus and INFOMAR projects, costing €8 million, and it will allow us to progress the Geological Survey of Ireland's three-year project on groundwater flooding relating to turloughs in Roscommon, Galway and Longford. This project, for which €500,000 will be provided next year, will provide an advisory service and collect valuable flood data from high priority groundwater flooding sites.

Ireland's fisheries represent a very important economic sector and angling is estimated to contribute €836 million to the Irish economy every year. More than 11,000 Irish jobs are supported as a result of angling, particularly in rural and peripheral communities where fewer job opportunities are available. I am pleased to have secured funding of nearly €32 million to support Inland Fisheries Ireland to deliver on its mandate for the protection, conservation, development and promotion of Ireland's inland fishery resources, including sea angling. This will allow Inland Fisheries Ireland to carry out its very important work and includes an increase of over €1 million for pay and €300,000 to tackle the invasive African pondweed, lagarosiphon major, in Lough Corrib, an issue I first raised in my maiden speech in an adjournment debate in 2011. I am delighted that there is direct funding to Inland Fisheries Ireland for this.

As Minister of State in the Department of Rural and Community Development, I acknowledge the increase in funding secured by the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Michael Ring, of €220 million, much of it going to programmes to improve the offering within rural Ireland. There are challenges in rural Ireland but there is potential too. There is an increase in both capital and current budgets which will allow a range of schemes, such as several which the Minister was able to open last year including additional capital programmes for CLÁR, town and village renewal, the rural works scheme and the rural recreation scheme. These have the potential to create jobs and to keep people in these areas to maintain and increase the population in rural Ireland. The Minister has a role in Cabinet to ensure rural Ireland gets its fair share from all Departments and that all policies and plans are rural-proofed. He also has a role in ensuring that the rural strategy, signed up to by all Government Departments, is implemented in full.

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