Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There is a lot of different legislation going through the House at different times and for different reasons.

Neither I nor any other Member believe that people should be allowed to drive when over the blood alcohol limit. To do so is indefensible. No Member would try to defend such behaviour because that would be unfair to those who may suffer because of it. It is positive that a practice that was commonplace is no longer so.

There are very many issues regarding what is at stake, how society is organised in Ireland and how we legislate. As regards housing, Ireland differs from most countries in Europe in terms of one-off housing. It was a bad idea to allow one-off housing all over the country. Many Members may disagree with me in that regard. The argument is often made that if one is born on a farm, one should be allowed to build on that land. I have no problem with that, provided that the new build is constructed near the existing house. Allowing sites in the middle of nowhere to be sold on the open market to whoever could afford to buy them was poor planning and had huge environmental implications.

I remember asking the former Minister for the Environment, Phil Hogan, how many of the septic tanks in Ireland the Department was going to check for compliance. There was a big furore over septic tanks at the time and much concern about the impact faulty tanks were having on the water table. It took me about ten minutes to get an answer out of him. He eventually told me that it was going to check approximately 8% of the septic tanks in the country. I asked him how many septic tanks in Wexford he thought were operating properly and within the rules. He said that the soil is good in Wexford and septic tanks work well there. I told him he was wrong and that although the land in Wexford is good for many purposes, it is not good for percolation. Half the septic tanks in Wexford are contaminating the water table and a link between contaminated water and cancer is not unproven. It is a huge problem in Ireland but the Government is not dealing with it. I have checked the rate at which inspections are being carried out in Wexford. At the current rate, it will take almost 200 years to inspect all septic tanks. Faulty tanks will keep poisoning the water table. It is strange with what issues we become obsessed.

Another outcome of one-off housing is that it would be almost impossible to provide a good level of public transport to all houses in Ireland. That could not be done because houses are all over the place. We do not have a good public transport system anyway. Although small improvements are being made, huge problems remain. I live in a village of several houses in the countryside. I could not leave and return to that village on a Friday or Saturday night using public transport. I accept that it would be difficult to provide that but, given that I live in a village rather than an isolated house, it should be done. In most countries in Europe, if one's home is in a cluster of houses or a village, one can travel to and from it using public transport. However, that cannot be done in Ireland. That will not change in the short term. I am not saying that the Minister should aim to ensure every small village in rural Ireland be serviced by public transport, even on a 20 hour basis, because that is not feasible. However, we must change our attitude to rural Ireland.

There has never been much State investment in indigenous industry. We have taken the lazy approach and been happy for foreign direct investment to provide most manufacturing jobs. Agriculture is a very good indigenous industry but we do not compare well with any European country in terms of manufacturing, although we would in terms of foreign direct investment. There was a time when the Government was able to ask a company coming to Ireland if it would be interested in setting up in a particular area and could suggest a suitable place. However, for a long time nobody has been able to tell foreign companies where they should set up. If the proposed location is not within an hour of Dublin Airport, companies are not very interested. The country is becoming more centralised in Dublin and the surrounding areas while the countryside is more and more neglected. There are fewer jobs available in the countryside and young people who grow up there move to a city as soon as possible in order to find employment. That means that it is harder for banks and post offices to remain open in small towns and small shops are struggling. The State has immense potential to make a difference in those areas.

A targeted and proactive approach by the Government would make a big difference. It should tackle the fact that rural Ireland is dying and try to change it. It should help every village in Ireland to flourish, not just cities and big towns. It should create a situation whereby young people would be able to remain in the area in which they grow up, which is not currently the case. Ireland is not the only country to have these problems but there has been a rapid erosion of rural Ireland over the past 20 years. I am very familiar with some small villages in northern Italy that have taken a different approach.

In one small village with which I am very familiar there is a real local authority. It is called a comune. It has some real power to run the local area. It runs the schools, a health service, the libraries, the refuse services and the water services. It organises community festivals. Of the income tax paid in the region, it is allowed to take a certain percentage in order to pay for the work it does. This is regional power. We do not have it. There is a local authority in Wexford but it is powerless and totally dependent on central government to do everything. It waits for handouts from central government. It used to receive motor tax revenue; I do not think it does any more. All it gets now is the commercial rates revenue, to the best of my knowledge. The local authority works out at the start of the year how much money it needs to keep running for the year and it works backwards to calculate the level at which it will set the rates for the year, despite the fact that about a third of those who have to pay commercial rates are either struggling or failing to pay them. It does not make sense. Rates in Ireland are ridiculously high. It is difficult to run a small business in this country. I know several people running small businesses, and it is not easy to make ends meet doing so. We have even built the buildings for some of the people who run huge businesses, foreign direct investment companies coming here, we have put in the infrastructure and we have given them grants to come here. More often than not, we charge them very little tax. However, for an individual trying to start a small business in rural Ireland there is very little State help. Someone I know very well was trying to start a small industry in Wexford in the past year and a half. I inquired here with the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation whether grants were available to help someone start up and was told there were. The person trying to start the industry looked into them and found them so prohibitive and restrictive that it did not make any sense even to sign up-----

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