Tom Neville (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I was struck by what Deputy Ferris said about rural Ireland. I emigrated during the recession and back then in 2010 and 2011 there was no hope anywhere in rural Ireland. When I see how it is today I think the situation has improved compared to where it was seven or eight years ago. We have come out of the recession.

I have listened to many political statements in the past hour and I would like to take the politics out of the debate for a moment. Rural Ireland was haemorrhaging at times during the boom. Post offices and small shops were closing during the boom. The reason they were closing was due to the development of technology, which has started to centralise all goods and services. The paper trail has become an electronic trail. Email has replaced the letter and websites have replaced the local shop. We must do what we can to protect local shops but we must also face the fact that technology has centralised everything and is continuing to do so in terms of urbanisation.

The development of the motor car has had an effect on rural Ireland. One can travel for longer and more comfortably than one could 30 years ago. The roads are also in better condition than they were. We must face facts. We must grapple with the changes and challenges in rural Ireland.

Moving on from what Deputy Ferris said, the next phase for us is to analyse rural Ireland. Instead of talking about it as a single entity the question is whether we should talk about areas that are close to cities. Do we talk about counties that do not have a specific urban centre but have a number of market towns? Do we talk about coastal areas? Do we specify rural Ireland and break it down into categories? I do not think we are doing rural Ireland a service by talking about it as a single entity. That is the next phase.

I recognise the achievements that have been brought about as a result of the Government's policy on rural Ireland. That is what brings us to these next steps. Some years ago we faced many more challenges in that regard. However, I refer to the €2 billion that is being invested, the town and village renewal scheme, the LEADER funding, the outdoor recreation scheme, CLÁR, the local improvement scheme, the social improvement and community activation programme, SICAP, the community enhancement programme and the senior alert scheme. Other initiatives include a new library strategy, the Tidy Towns competition, agricultural shows, walk schemes and the Men's Shed initiative. There has been a plethora of grant-aided funding across different sectors in rural Ireland.

I will give the example of the place I come from, Kilfinny. It had a small school - there were five in my class when I was going to school - a small church and a hall. During the recession, that place, like every other place, faced huge challenges but the people in Kilfinny came together. I refer to the development of a community childcare crèche which has now become a feeder to the school. The school is increasing in numbers. The people got together in respect of a local GAA club and soccer club. Six or seven years ago the soccer club did not have an underage team. There are now 137 children signed up to the team. This is a place where there is no town as such. It is just a rural area but the people were empowered to come together to create that. We need to continue to foster that and empower people to take the chance.

Another person came in and bought the local pub, which was on its knees, with only five or ten people going in at the time. That is no disrespect to the owners. They were in the latter years of their career. They came in and took the chance. That is now a booming restaurant and pub. They have moved with the times. That is what happens when we empower people and help them to do that.

We need to start thinking differently about rural Ireland. We can be as political as we want. I could throw stones at Sinn Féin and talk about Northern Ireland. I could throw stones at Fianna Fáil regarding the recession and what happened beforehand. I know that stones could be thrown back at the Government in respect of two-tier economies but let us remove the politics out of the debate for a moment and think about it critically in terms of coming up with solutions.

The solutions I want to offer tonight would be to analyse rural Ireland in terms of those different areas, given the achievements we have made already. Sports capital funding is going into rural Ireland. To be colloquial, we opened the West Limerick Drama Festival about two months ago. That hall was developed and it is now like a theatre. It is like the old days where we had the cinemas inside the different areas. There are seven or eight drama groups across County Limerick. That is how rural Ireland is coming back. That is how people are coming together. It is in a different format and the grants that are coming off what the Minister, Deputy Ring, has delivered is achieving that.

Granagh is a small rural community. Ten nights in a row the hall in Granagh was packed with people attending a community play. That is because the hall has been developed into a theatre in which we can get the sound, the vision and everything else. People want to come and pay to see that.

Those are just a few of my ideas. I thank the Minister for visiting the constituency recently to see the Sailors Haggard memorial in Clarina.

See this speech in context