Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Let us talk about the facts. We have more people living in the rural Ireland than we have ever had since the time of the Famine. What is it that they want in regard to services? I will give some examples. Two of my nearest post offices in the villages of Moone and Narraghmore closed in recent times, as the Ceann Comhairle will be well aware. Many people contacted me and expressed their concern about this. They told me the post offices were the focal point of the community, the spot where they meet their neighbours and where they find out what is happening in their community. Nobody asked me where they would buy a stamp because these people are not sending letters in the same way anymore and they are not buying stamps. Let us talk about the fact people are feeling a sense of loss but let us not guarantee a post office service if nobody is using the post office in the area. There is a reason the next generation of postmasters did not take over those post offices.

They did not offer an income because people were not using the post office service in the same way. Community development associations have come together in Narramore and Moone. A remarkably positive cafe has been developed in Moone. Local people volunteer in the cafe and a not-for-profit community shop. It is thriving and has had to extend its hours. The people who volunteer there, predominantly retired people, get such a kick out of it and are looking to open for more days because they enjoy it so much. I was delighted to have the Minister of State, Deputy Brendan Griffin, there recently. I would love the Minister to come down to see it as well, because it is an example of communities taking on these challenges. That community has not even had the opportunity to apply for the town and village renewal scheme yet. Those projects have been accomplished through some local fundraising and the local property tax. This is where links with local councillors and local authorities and the proper use of local property tax, which is local people's money spent locally, can be beneficial.

Up the road in Narramore, an €80,000 town and village renewal grant will be used to develop the old hardware shop into a market, community shop and cafe area. This is again a local community that is not sitting back and feeling sorry for itself but proactively going about its business with the assistance of the State and the local authority through the area's local taxes. That is the direction we need to go. We need to empower local authorities to bring themselves on, and that is how we do it.

Rural planning is an area about which the Ceann Comhairle is particularly passionate. We have challenges in Kildare regarding one-off housing. We share the frustration with how Kildare County Council addressed it. At the same time, I deal with many constituents who do not necessarily need to live on the family holding but are looking for a one-off rural house because they want to live close to their family network and community. These people come to me around the time they are starting families. They want their kids to go to the same local primary school they went to and to have the same opportunities to play for the local GAA or soccer club. They want the support of local family members. As I have learned myself in recent years, when kids come along being close to granny and grandad and aunts and uncles is important. Objective 18b of the national planning framework, the development of serviced sites, is a key component of that. Some people will need to live on the family holding. Our national policy and county development plan supports that, as it should. Serviced sites are important for those who do not need to do so but want to live in and sustain those rural communities. We need local authorities to take a proactive approach to this, and services like Irish Water play an important role. That is a key component to maintaining the numbers in our schools and the fabric of those rural communities. Not everybody needs to live in those areas, but a lot of people will be looking to build there because of the free sites. If we can locate affordable serviced sites within the towns, rural nodes or villages it will address a lot of those challenges. It will give people another option beyond living on the family holding.

I have been a passionate advocate of Local Link and what can be offered through rural transport. As party chairman, I proposed the extension of evening and weekend routes on behalf of Fine Gael. While that has been very successful and I hope that the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Shane Ross, will extend it in the coming weeks, I was trying to show the potential of our rural transport network. Rural buses offer massive flexibility, whether they operate in a linear route like we have in south Kildare or through appointed collection routes. Moreover, the flexibility offered by rural taxis, hackneys, Uber and the Minister of State's lift scheme should come under the umbrella of Local Link. We should link our Local Link services to our local authorities much more closely. In Athy, our local councillors have allocated some of the local property tax money towards bus stops for those areas.

I will also address rural crime. We will hit the target Garda strength of 15,000 by the end of next year, which is important. We are currently at 14,000. As we increase Garda strength we will have better support in securing our rural communities. In Kildare, there are a lot of issues regarding the ease with which criminals who are not from our area can access the area or get away easily, particularly with the motorway network of the M7 and M9. CCTV systems have massive potential. Having worked through the bureaucracy and red tape of the earlier stages, we have now moved to a new phase. Community CCTV on our motorway network junctions is a key component of that and an obvious way to help secure our communities in conjunction with local policing committees and local authorities. Everything I propose is linked to our local authorities and empowering them to support local communities even more.

As a mixed-enterprise farmer and a member, along with Deputy Neville, of the Joint Committee on Climate Action, I was delighted that we were able to rectify some of the aspersions cast on the Citizens' Assembly report on climate action, particularly in the area of agriculture. Agriculture has significant potential and a positive role to play in developing carbon sinks and the sequestration of carbon. During the recession, Deputy Michael Noonan's budget speeches in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 had such a focus on the agriculture sector. The Government recognised the potential of the agriculture sector to lift our country out of recession. The agricultural sector and community were not found wanting in meeting that challenge, and I have no doubt that they will not be found wanting as we address climate change in a significant way. In turn, this will help to sustain and develop our communities, as can be seen in the roll-out of the community energy schemes through the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI.

Tourism is another area that has experienced benefits and contributed to the increase in employment. It was another area that was examined during the recession. The Minister played a key role in his previous portfolio. Through Government initiatives like the Wild Atlantic Way and Ireland's Ancient East, tourism has helped to drive employment in those key areas. That is why we have seen such an increase in employment in all regions.

Regarding health, so much investment has gone into primary care centres. The latest one to be delivered in south Kildare is in Athy. It was great to have the Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, there recently to lay a block on an €11 million investment that will not just benefit the town of Athy but all of south Kildare. I hope to see KDOC offer a clinic there so that people all across south Kildare do not have to travel to Naas for the services and supports that will be available. This will help to take the pressure off our acute hospital system and locate our health services in the community, where they should be.

That summarises a couple of areas that have come to my mind in the short time I have had to speak. Rural Ireland is alive and well. Rural Ireland has more people living in it now than it has had since the Famine, but they are living their lives differently. We need to have a fair, honest and reasonable debate in this House about how best to support individuals and communities in rural Ireland in living the life they want. We should try not to deal in lazy narratives or simply try to protect everything. People are inherently not fond of change. When it comes, it brings challenges because people change their behaviour. We will serve those last houses that have not got rural broadband. We will do it with an ambitious and significant investment in rural Ireland. Let there be a warning however, and let us be honest with people. If residents get high-speed broadband to their houses, that will give them the capacity to have Tesco deliver to their doorsteps. It will give them access to post office services, banking services and all the online shops. They are the services that will be lost from town centres if we do not use and support them. People need to be aware that they should use their local services. If they do not, they will lose them and it will be hard to get them back. We need to have a conversation about supporting our local small businesses and communities and encouraging people to use those services, but to do so in the way that they want.

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