Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I note to Deputy Calleary that some people, albeit not him, misunderstand that the €100,000 funding is provided, not to carry out repairs and so on, but rather to allow local authorities to work with communities, chambers of commerce and community groups. I am asking them to look at how we can get people back living in towns and villages. Deputy Calleary noted the level of vacant property around the place and that is exactly what I am trying to target. We have never had as many people living and working in rural Ireland. However, we have a different rural Ireland now. I have made the point before that we had shops on streets in towns in every corner of the country from the 1940s right up to the 1980s. That changed with multinational stores coming in. Those stores are being challenged in turn by online shopping. We hope the six towns we have selected will come back. Some might come back with similar ideas and proposals the Government may need to implement to target people to live in towns. The Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government had a scheme that did not work which means it was not the right scheme.

If we are going to introduce schemes, we have to make sure that they are working. Deputy Connolly talked about the criteria. I could have picked any number of towns around the country. I left it up to the officials. We tried to vary the size and locations. I looked at Galway to see if I could get a Gaeltacht town that might fit into this scheme. That does not mean, when this pilot scheme is done, that I will not pick another 12 towns. I will try to pick 12 different counties to see what we can do. I hope that this scheme will come back with good ideas and good suggestions. I hope that Government will follow up with Deputy Calleary too.

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