Martin Ferris (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

All of us Deputies who come from rural Ireland have watched the terrible depopulation of rural Ireland, in particular in the west and south west, and many of us have tried to do our best to highlight it. It has been going on for decades, and the political establishment, that is, successive Governments, has done absolutely nothing to try to address it. Like my colleagues here, I come from and love rural Ireland but I have watched the population where I grew up and where I live decline. The same can be said for the entire west coast of Ireland, west of the Shannon and indeed many other areas. Successive Governments have done nothing to address this. One consequence of the depopulation of rural Ireland is the closure of shops, Garda stations, post offices and all the infrastructure that was sustained by the population that lived there.

Last night I was at a meeting with the two Deputy Healy-Raes in Dromod in south Kerry. There were about 150 people there trying to save their post office. We were told at the meeting that two post offices have closed in Kerry as a result of Government policy, namely, Knocknagashel and Gneevgullia. This is another nail in the coffin for that part of rural Ireland. I have also made contact with a number of engineers who do work for constituents, trying to get them planning permission. All the Deputies here will tell the Minister of State that the biggest obstacle to getting planning permission has always been the population problem and trying to find ways and means of addressing it. Many of these engineers will tell him they have come up with systems and ideas that can deal with the situation but they have come up against red tape and resistance, in particular from Government policies. This evening I spoke with another engineer who told me about a raised bed area in Killarney measuring 4 m by 4 m by 1 m, 122 linear m, costing approximately €3,000 to €4,000. He was entitled to a discharge licence and has done a fantastic job. This could be replicated all over County Kerry, and indeed many other parts of rural Ireland, if the political will was there.

Deputy Martin Kenny's proposal offers part of a solution to try to address this. It deserves and demands the support of every Deputy who cares about rural Ireland. It is not too long ago, about eight years ago, that Deputy Pearse Doherty and I brought out two reports on coastal communities and a viable rural economy. Right afterwards, the Government initiated the Commission for the Economic Development of Rural Areas, CEDRA, report with Pat Spillane, the former Kerry footballer. Where is that report now? It is gathering dust on a shelf. It addressed all the areas we had addressed in our previous report, such as trying to bring the population back to rural Ireland. Pat Spillane, I understand, would not be a supporter of Sinn Féin but would perhaps be supportive of the Minister of State's party because it gave him the job.

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