Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

At the start of this month, the Minister was rolling out "The Big Hello" campaign, urging people to reach out to their neighbours as part the first national community weekend, which took place at the May bank holiday weekend. While this is a lovely initiative, I am thinking of the reality. In my own constituency of Cork South-West which is decreasing in population size, there are no young people joining voluntary groups. GAA clubs are either disbanding or merging in rural areas because there are no young people there anymore.

Unfortunately, there is an increase in rural isolation in areas such as west Cork. Many people living in rural Ireland are isolated and their next-door neighbour could be miles away. I worry deeply for elderly people living in rural Ireland and the social isolation they face every day. Many people like to live independently for as long as possible in their own homes and they need to be supported to do that. Supports, such as the home help system, are vitally important to many people. Unfortunately, many recipients are getting inadequate hours and this needs to be urgently addressed. Many elderly people would not survive in their own homes were it not for the help that they get from their neighbours and their community.

Volunteerism is keeping rural Ireland alive and many people give hours of help and support to their neighbours and their community. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul published a report, entitled "Older People - Experiences and Issues", where it explored the challenges of older people living in Ireland. The report highlighted that the increased loneliness and isolation that elderly people were experiencing was also attributed to recent social and economic changes, such as the closure of local post offices. This was described by many as "a significant loss in terms of a central place where older people could congregate for a chat".

As people get older or suffer from ill-health, they may find it difficult to drive and living in a rural community can be a big problem.

I welcomed the announcement earlier this year that Local Link would be providing a service connecting Glengarriff with Kenmare and Killarney. This is a fantastic service that operates 52 weeks a year. It gets people out of their homes and helps tackle rural isolation. The problem in rural areas relates to the types of services that are needed, especially for the elderly people who cannot drive for one reason or another.

When I was out canvassing, I discovered that people's greatest frustration was with the Road Traffic (Amendment) Act 2018, which the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, guided through the Dáil. That legislation has absolutely wrecked rural Ireland. All Deputies supported that legislation, bar a few of us over here and we were treated as if we were lepers for opposing it. The fact is that it has had the exact effect on rural Ireland that we predicted.

On the other side of the coin, many people in rural areas have to use their cars to commute to work. Transport Infrastructure Ireland has found that 70% of people use their cars to travel to work, 60% as drivers and 10% as passengers. Traffic gridlock is very common, particularly at peak times. I have called for a park-and-ride type service from west Cork to the city to be rolled out as pilot project. This service should specifically run from Clonakilty to Cork, with some buses serving the airport and the railway station. Each extra bus, which would accommodate 40 passengers, would have the potential to replace approximately 30 cars on the roads.

School transport in rural areas is a major issue. Specific buses have transported children to school for decades. Some smaller schools have been closed and the children now attend larger, central schools. Parishes and communities were guaranteed school bus services in the catchment areas of schools that were closed in order that children might be transported to central schools. This is known as the closed-central school rule. This rule was discontinued by the previous Government as one of a series of cuts relating to rural Ireland. Its discontinuation caused great problems for many parents. During the negotiations to form a Government, rural Deputies raised this and other issues relating to rural areas. At the time, those who eventually formed the Government gave a commitment to restore the central-closed school rule. This needs to be fully delivered, particularly in light of the hardship that is being visited upon families.

Rural Ireland is deteriorating in front of our eyes. We need investment in order that rural Ireland might be restored to its former glory. In order to achieve this goal, we need proper infrastructure. In the context of the Cork County development plan, Ballinspittle, an area in west Cork, was zoned as an area in which 100 additional houses might be provided. Those houses which are needed in Ballinspittle but as a result of the failure to expand a local treatment plant, they will not be built. We are going nowhere in a hurry. There is no point in putting fancy words into a development plan and not delivering what is promised in reality. As a result of that to which I refer, the development in Ballinspittle cannot be delivered and this will affect many people who want to build or buy new houses there.

In other areas in west Cork, waste treatment plants - I know this is not relevant to the Department of Rural and Community Development but it is a rural issue - are either inadequate or totally absent. In some coastal villages, including Goleen and Ballydehob, the waste treatment plants are poor and untreated sewage is being discharged into the sea as a result. According to Irish Water, Castletownbere and Castletownshend are among five towns and villages in County Cork where there are substandard treatment plants and where untreated sewage is being discharged into the water. I have been informed in writing by Irish Water that it will be some years before wastewater treatment plants will be installed.

The Department of Rural and Community Development has responsibility for promoting and facilitating long-term economic and social progress in rural areas. The Department is responsible for co-ordinating the Action Plan for Rural Development, including the implementation of the LEADER elements of the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020. There is no point in discussing LEADER. The Government has made a hames of LEADER in terms of the way it is foot-printed and implemented all over rural Ireland. It is only a cod. It covers parks and benches, knives and forks and funding for simple things rather than getting down to what it was previously good for and capable of delivering. LEADER did deliver for rural communities in the past because it operated from the ground up. All that is gone. Forget about it because people in west Cork do not even consider it any more, which is sad.

Schemes catered for under the programme include the rural recreation scheme, the rural walks scheme, the town and village enhancement scheme and CLÁR. The oversight of preparations for the timely roll-out of broadband is also covered. In the context broadband, we all have issues regarding massive amount of money being talked about in recent months. I will not go into that. However, someone must talk to the private operators that are rolling out broadband over hills and dales, particularly in the context of the cost of the national broadband plan. If these providers pull the plug, there will be people who will be without broadband for two or three years before the plan is delivered, that is, if it is ever delivered. My advice to the Minister is to talk to the private operators and ensure that there is some comfort zone for them going forward. They are ready to pull the plug and if they do so, there will be serious consequences for people in rural areas. What is happening with Eir and others is that there are rich pickings for them at present but they are ready to pull the plug. If they do pull the plug, the boys who live on up on the hills will have no broadband. The Government will have to talk at that point and it will really know what a problem is.

In 2018, just over €21 million in funding was allocated under the town and village renewal scheme. In my constituency, only Bantry and Dunmanway received funding. They got €189,000 in total, which represents only 0.8% of the overall amount available. Does the Government understand what I am saying? West Cork has been totally forgotten. It is scandalous that an area of that size is only getting crumbs when it comes to funding under that scheme.

We need to see development in rural Ireland on many fronts. We have to come up with ideas to preserve rural areas not only for the people and businesses who live and operate there but also for the tourism sector. I am blue in the face from asking this Government to deliver on the promises during the negotiations to form an Administration in 2016. The rural resettlement scheme has been spoken about because the housing crisis is only getting worse. There was never a better time to actively promote the concept of rural resettlement. This scheme has been rolled out in County Clare. Will the Minister indicate if it can be extended to west Cork?

The bottom line is that we need investment in rural Ireland. Such investment is not being made. Young people are looking for planning permission to build houses and they are being rejected left, right and centre. Those seeking planning permission for massive developments have no problem at all in obtaining it. A young person is being told that he or she has no connection to an area despite the fact that he or she lives only four miles away. He or she will be informed that where he or she currently lives has no connection at all to the townland to which the application relates. It is a farce.

As Deputy Danny Healy-Rae indicated, what the Government did in the context of Pat Spillane was take a real, honest-to-God voice out of rural Ireland. This was not to save a pittance, rather it was to shut down the voice of the ordinary people. Perhaps the Minister, Deputy Ring, should be here to respond rather than the Minister of State, Deputy English. The way the Government treated Pat Spillane was outrageous and scandalous beyond belief. Mr. Spillane was a great ambassador for the people. He was fair to the Government and to the ordinary people out there who are struggling. He was a voice but that voice had to be and shut down. If people listened to the Minister earlier, they would be aware that he wants to shut me down. He will fail in that and he will fail to shut Pat Spillane down. However, if he is allowed to continue what he is doing, he will succeed in shutting rural Ireland down.

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