Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Murphy O'Mahony for sharing time. First, I wish to offer my sympathy to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed, on the very tough week or so his family has gone through.

When Deputies get a chance to speak on a budget many of the issues their constituencies face are raised in the Dáil. As one listens to the debate one finds that the Government is saying that everything is absolutely fantastic while the Opposition is saying that everything is dire. The truth is probably somewhere in between. Nevertheless, we are charged with trying to improve the lives of the people we are so lucky and honoured to represent here, so I wish to raise a number of issues. The first is the M20. I understand there is a programme coming down the track in that regard but it is vitally important. When I raised this matter as a Topical Issue earlier this year there was talk that it was going to be short-circuited and that a different route would be taken. It is vital that the M20 is prioritised because it will open up all the territory on the western corridor. It would alleviate pressure on Buttevant and Charleville while also connecting them. Where I live is an hour from any of the motorways. If there is to be balanced regional development the movement of the M20 to construction at a fast pace is vital for our countryside to flourish and grow.

The Minister, Deputy Ring, spoke about rural Ireland.

Rural areas face many challenges. The Minister referred to the Leader programme. Community organisations are working extremely hard to improve their communities. The funding logjam in the Leader programme must be removed because the sooner the funding is released, the better. The various projects funded under the Leader programme will contribute to employment in small businesses and traders. A substantial amount has been spent under Leader and it is vital that funding is released irrespective of what system is devised for the programme.

People are once again submitting planning applications to build homes in rural areas. Reference was made to a report that would be published on one-off housing. A raft of one-off houses was built in rural communities during the boom years, particularly between 2000 and 2007. Those who built these houses, whether natives to the area or people from outside, are making a substantial contribution to the communities in which they live. In 2000-2001, the planning authorities adopted the line that no further housing would be permitted on regional and rural roads. Representatives of An Taisce argued before the committee on the environment at that time that it was nonsensical to permit one-off housing. I am glad that advice was not heeded. Planners have consistently stated that housing must be built in groups. Large numbers of houses were built in estates such as Lismire and Boherbue, which later became ghost estates.

As councillors are hearing regularly and I have no doubt the Minister, Deputy Creed, and Minister of State, Deputy Doyle, are well aware, couples seeking planning permission to build homes in rural areas are finding the system stacked against them. In addition to the cost of contributions, many are experiencing difficulties securing planning permission to build a modest home. People who built one-off houses in the past ten or 15 years are rearing children who attend local schools, join football teams and participate in all other local activities.

A senior official in the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government told me recently that the Department was about to publish a report challenging the practice of building one-off housing on the basis that it is unsustainable. We must get a grip on this issue for rural Ireland. We talk about services but rural areas also need people. We should provide incentives to attract people to them. There appears to be a national planning policy in place, perhaps dreamed up by officials rather than politicians, that we should not bother with areas west of Mallow and people should move to the east. This is a major issue.

Since my election to the Dáil 20 years ago, all Governments have spoken about how they would save post offices and report after report has been published on the issue. Action is needed at this stage. Post offices will only survive if a transactions-led imitative is taken. It is high time we got to grips with the issue and decided to support post offices.

I have raised the issue of respite care a number of times in recent months. I have met a number of parents of children with intellectual disabilities, particularly over the summer, who are crying out for respite services but are unable to get them. Earlier this year, the Health Service Executive south and Department of Health gave a commitment to provide respite care for one weekend in every quarter. Some families have received only three or four nights of respite care in the past 12 months. This is a major issue. One can see the pain and anxiety this causes and the effect that the lack of respite is having on parents and others who need a break from providing full-time care. The last time I raised the issue, the Taoiseach was very dismissive, stating that responsibility lay with officials from the Department of Health as opposed to the Department of Finance. Officials from the Department of Health informed me, however, that the Department of Finance was reluctant to commit money for respite care.

St. Joseph's Foundation in Charleville does great work providing services in three or four counties. As Dr. Martin O'Donnell says, it works with people from the cradle to the grave. Some service providers are section 38 organisations, while others are section 39 organisations. This means some organisations are fully funded by the State and their staff have pay, increments, pensions and everything else funded. These voluntary organisations were established on the basis of goodwill 50 years ago. They now face serious problems finding revenue to fund increments. My colleague, Deputy Eugene Murphy, spoke earlier at the meeting of the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party about the use of agency nursing by organisations that do not have sufficient funding. The State must fully fund all these service providers because we will be challenged on how we protect vulnerable people who need help.

The Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Michael Ring, has left the Chamber. The scheme under which alarms are provided to elderly people living alone has been highly successful. Community alert organisations and Muintir na Tíre are involved in this scheme, under which contracts are provided primarily to locally based security firms which monitor the alarms and ensure they are all operating. I have been informed that a nationwide contract for monitoring these alarms has been awarded to a company from outside the country. How will this work if the company is not based on the island? The community organisations tell us they build up a rapport with the various security companies which operated the services heretofore.

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Michael Creed, spoke about the hen harrier, which is a major issue. I hope the scheme to which he referred will be up and running by the end of the year and the consultants who have been appointed will address the real issue concerning the hen harrier. New evidence suggests that advice provided ten or 15 years ago in support of a ban on planting and the installation of wind farms in certain areas may not be correct. While I wish the scheme well, I ask the Minister to ensure compensation is provided to farmers whose lands are designated. Broadband is another issue in rural areas.

People who are approaching retirement often contact the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection to obtain records on the amount of PRSI they have paid. The changes introduced in 2012, which were a retrograde step, especially for women, have been widely discussed. Many of those who have contacted the Department have been told they must set up an account and log into the Department's website to obtain their records. I spoke to officials in the Department about this issue this morning. Many people do not have access to computers.

They cannot constantly sit in front of computers in Kiskeam, Rockchapel or anywhere else to get basic information like whether PRSI has been paid on their behalf over the years.

This brings me to broadband. In the past four, five or six years, broadband has been mentioned time out of number. The introduction of a new initiative was announced. In 2014, we applied to the EU for state aid approval. That year and throughout 2015, the former Minister, Alex White, took the application through the EU while preparing tender documents to ensure broadband connectivity in places that could not sustain commercial broadband. However, we are no closer to that today than we were three or four years ago. Where is the breakdown? The ESB-Vodafone joint venture has withdrawn from the tender process. The best solution in terms of fibre broadband was to use the ESB Networks infrastructure because that was the only way of getting to each and every house no matter how remote. What has happened? There is no seriousness about the issue. Depending on how remote one is, wireless broadband might not work. People must move house or travel up and down roads just to send emails, which is a basic service. At a meeting in Newmarket on Friday night, someone told us that people in one area there did not have basic mobile phone coverage, never mind broadband. There are major issues in this regard.

I wish to raise a further issue. The Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government is conducting a review of tenant purchases. This matter was raised in the Dáil last week. People must show that they have incomes of over €15,000 and have a repayment capacity. However, some are in a position to buy their houses outright, or their families are in a position to buy it for them, because of family circumstances, for example, they are the beneficiaries of other people's legacies. In a number of the cases on my books, people can buy their houses outright but, due to the way in which the tenant purchase scheme is regulated, they cannot do so. When the State was building a large amount of social housing in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, there was an incentive for families to buy their houses when their situations improved. That system worked well for society because it encouraged people to mind the houses that they were tenants in and to better themselves in that regard. As the Taoiseach did the other day, the Department will challenge this statement by saying that we sold off our stock, but it had a significant impact on the well-being and social infrastructure of society. The anomalies involved should be examined.

I will make a final point in the minute or two remaining to me. We face a significant difficulty in terms of medical cards for terminally ill people. I want to be careful in what I say because it will go on the public record, but families with loved ones who have been diagnosed with terminal illnesses are being asked to fill out forms and get doctors' letters and consultants' letters. By and large, they are not in the frame of mind to deal with this. Every single politician in the House will have faced families in such circumstances. A simple letter from a GP, one who knows the family and the person's circumstances, outlining what the illness is should do. Last year, the HSE asked us to go back over something because the end of life reason was not written on the consultant's letter. The GP gave a letter to the family and, mindful of the sensitivities of the diagnosis, put the reason in language that had the same meaning. The HSE should read what is written on these letters and make a judgment on same. Irrespective of cancer patients' incomes prior to their diagnoses, seeing as how a diagnosis can have a significant impact on a family's finances in terms of job losses and so on, the HSE should accept a GP's letter and grant a medical card without further delay. For people who receive such diagnoses, this major issue has a detrimental effect on them and their families into the future.

With those few comments made, I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to contribute on this debate.

See this speech in context