Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is a rural person from the west of Ireland and there is no doubt he knows the exact problems facing rural Ireland. I can only describe him as a Deputy Ó Cuív, part two, because he has continued some of the good schemes that Deputy started, such as the CLÁR programme and so forth. There is no question that it is making a difference.

Deputy Heydon mentioned post offices and how things move on and change. That is true but a number of post offices should not have been closed. I refer to the post office in Gurteen, County Sligo. It fulfilled all the criteria that An Post used for the sustainability of post offices, yet it was shut. That is wrong. Six or seven other post offices around that area closed and nobody could complain or say a word because the business was not there. However, there was business in Gurteen. There is a population of 512 and there were 1,300 transactions a week. It fulfilled all the criteria so we must be careful in that regard.

There are many buildings in the towns and villages and there is much talk about the shops. Everybody wants Lidl, Aldi and Tesco but, unfortunately, there is a price to pay. The people paying the price are the small businesses in the towns and villages whose shops are closing. However, there are many properties available and I believe we should introduce some type of rural regeneration scheme, similar to the rural renewal scheme, whereby if people invest in a property, particularly if it is for rental, they will get a tax free allowance for that investment. It would not cost the Government a cent. The allowance would be in place over ten years. It worked previously and I am sure it can work again.

With regard to farming, the agriculture committee had a meeting with the Irish Natura & Hill Farmers Association, the ICMSA, the IFA and other groups yesterday. It started at 3.30 p.m. and continued until 9.30 p.m. I am not a member of the committee but I attended the meeting to listen to the concerns. There is no doubt there is a very serious problem in the beef sector. We must seriously examine supporting the suckler farmers. If we do not, they will be wiped out. It is that simple.

Another issue is rural planning. Anybody planning to build a house in Leitrim at present must invest approximately €50,000 to get a sewerage system that will work for the house. I believe there are other ways of dealing with that. If people were allowed to build big tanks there are plenty of people who can empty the tanks and have the content discharged into a proper facility owned by county councils. They are in place and can be used. It would allow people to live in the rural areas where people are needed to keep the local school or shop going.

On local roads, the Minister reintroduced the local improvement scheme, which is very important. The people living on a little boreen are as important as the people living on the N4 or the N17. I am glad the Minister reintroduced it and more funding should be put into it. People need the roads. There is a little more funding for the Class 2 and Class 3 roads but a great deal more is needed to bring those roads up to standard.

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