Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Some of the comments were shocking but I have enormous respect for the Minister, Deputy Ring, because when I approach him about issues in my constituency he responds, usually in a positive fashion. It has been said repeatedly this evening that he certainly has a passion for rural Ireland and wants to improve matters. My colleague, Deputy Scanlon, other Members and some of our local authority members always welcome positive announcements, as I did in my own county in terms of towns like Boyle and other places, in recent times. The Minister travels through the town of Strokestown on many occasions but we will be looking for a few more bob from him down the road.

In fairness, there are many issues against rural Ireland. I am sure the Minister has listened to so many of them at this stage he does not want to hear too much more of it this evening. I acknowledge that many factors have changed and I will not dismiss everything about the Government and what has not happened in rural Ireland. I take the good with the bad. There have been some positive developments and some disappointing ones. There is no doubt that rural Ireland is under enormous pressure.

There is no point in any speaker here giving the impression that all is hunky dory and that we do not have a crisis. If one travels through my town or Strokestown this evening one will see the reality of so many vacant buildings. The Minister acknowledges this. We must repopulate those towns and villages. There must be footfall. If there is no footfall businesses cannot survive. Out of town shopping centres have done enormous damage to towns and villages. Online shopping is also a major issue. It will close down more businesses.

Another thing that has done a great deal of damage, and I have spoken previously about a financial solution to it, is bypassing many of our towns and villages. It has been an absolute disaster. We have to upgrade our roads and people in the west of Ireland must be able to get freight. We need to have the N5 and the M4 roads, and I am not objecting to that. However, this House has never addressed the situation by looking at a scheme to invest in the towns and villages that are left behind when they are bypassed. If one has a hardware shop, a pharmacy or a supermarket one will survive when the town is bypassed, but if one has a filling station, a restaurant or a newspaper shop one will not. We have seen that in Ballaghaderreen and other towns. We need a scheme that enables investment with the local authority. There could be a tourism product in the town or village so let us be able to invest in it so the town or village has a future.

According to recent statistics there are approximately 600,000 people living in towns that have between 1,500 and 10,000 residents. That is a large number of people for rural areas. As the Minister has often said, there is an imbalance in the population growth in this country. There is huge population growth in the east and poor population growth in the west. We have a solution, which is that we must increase our investment in the west of Ireland to get rid of that imbalance. I listened this morning to a report on research which found that 150,000 more people will reside in Dublin in the next three years, and it is already bursting at the seams. The reality is that we must draw more business to the west and the midlands. We must give incentives to business. The Minister knows this and is quite passionate about it. As has been said repeatedly in this debate, we must get jobs into the region.

Our region was very lucky for many years. We had Bord na Móna, the ESB and we had the Burlington industry in Clondra, over the bridge in Termonbarry, which employed 1,000 people. Glanbia was in Rooskey and employed more than 600 people. We have lost all of them so the area must get investment. The Minister will agree that Ireland's Hidden Heartlands will be a very important feature in developing our part of the country. I am glad there is investment in that and that there are four or five workers employed in it. We must tap into that and develop tourism. We must take in the Center Parcs and the developments on Sliabh Bawn and other places. We must sell tourism because that is what the reality will be for many parts of rural Ireland. It will be a massive challenge but we must do it.

I acknowledge there is investment and a great deal of support. The Minister has thrown himself into this and he does a good job. I have quoted a figure on many occasions here in the past in respect of one of the problems in rural Ireland. It is that in my county up to 900 people per day get on a bus, into a car or onto the train to travel to Dublin. Many of them, including members of my family, leave at 4 a.m. and get home at 9 p.m. It is not a family life. We must give incentives to get jobs in rural areas.

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