Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

If he is only getting the site, he will have to pay the 6% and transfer the site to his name before he can get a bank loan. I know what I am talking about because people very close to me have had to do this already and will have to do it again now and the duty has risen from 2% to 6%.

I am grateful for the funding that was given to local improvement schemes last year and I hope that it will be doubled next year because people in County Kerry have been waiting for their turn for eight or nine years now. As I have said here before, people in rural Ireland are every bit as entitled to a good road to their door as people in Dublin 4. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine returned €1.6 million to the Exchequer for 2016. I hope that does not happen again this year because people in rural areas are suffering. As a barometer as to what is happening, the proud parish of Scartaglin is not able to continue in the county league because the young fellows are all going abroad. Even in my own parish of Kilgarvan, another six left for Australia in the last few days. Emigration is still happening and rural Ireland is badly affected by it. Let us just take a place like the parish of Lauragh, where the two shops, the post office and the Garda station have all closed. There is nothing there now to identify it as a parish in its own right, barring one pub down in Kilmackillogue. Everything is closing. This is what is happening in rural Ireland. The people of Sneem and Caherdaniel can only field one team between them whereas heretofore, they could put out three and four teams at various times.

During the housing debate last night, I asked for the extension of the repair and leasing scheme to rural villages. The Minister of State, Deputy English, responded by saying that the scheme already covered rural areas. It does not. The only areas that qualify for this scheme are those with an immense pressure for social housing. If the Government wants to revitalise rural towns and villages not already included under the repair and leasing scheme, it will have to extend the scheme. It is no good for the Taoiseach to talk about vacant properties when such properties are not fit to be lived in. It is not fair and we will not have houses or be able to provide housing until he extends this scheme right out around rural areas. Many of the houses in these rural villages are falling down.

11 o’clock

That is the truth of the matter. If the Minister wants to revamp those properties, please include them in the repair and leasing scheme because they are not included at present.

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