Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this budget. It is very much a budget that prepares for the worst while hoping for the best. There are a few issues I want to pick up on. We can all highlight weaknesses in the budget, and we would all have liked to see far more money going into services, but there are several elements of this budget that must be highlighted. They provide an opportunity for communities across the country with good ideas and solutions to come forward with constructive proposals that can be developed into very beneficial schemes, not just for those communities but for the country as a whole. I welcome the fact that €31 million of funding has been allocated for the midland counties to deal with the challenges surrounding Bord na Móna. I particularly welcome the €6 million of funding allocated to measures for a just transition. People will argue that the funding is insufficient, and I agree with them. However, it is seed capital to support communities across the midland counties. Those communities can come forward with good, innovative solutions that will create jobs across the midlands and have them developed into initiatives that can leverage funding from the European Commission or the urban or rural regeneration and development funds.

I also welcome the acknowledgement in the budget of remote working. While in the past we have paid lip service to this issue, IDA Ireland has continued to pile more jobs into the city of Dublin, which does not have the capacity to cater for them. Meanwhile, many communities across the country with the required office and housing accommodation cannot attract those jobs. The budget announcements included an allocation of funding to establish 300 rural digital hubs across the country, with an average of seven in every county. These will allow communities and individuals to work remotely. I encourage companies and businesses based here in Dublin to see how they can exploit those digital hubs to relocate staff from rural parts of the country and the regions back to those communities. My colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Boxer Moran, has advocated remote working for the Civil Service. The Minister for Finance acknowledged this option in his budget speech and a review will now commence.

The first area that needs to be looked at is vacant State-owned office accommodation throughout the country to see whether staff could be located there rather than having to develop new accommodation. Roscommon town has thousands of square footage of turnkey commercial office space that would be ready to accommodate businesses tomorrow morning. I encourage business looking at expanding rather than trying to build and source new office accommodation in Dublin to consider the opportunities in provincial towns throughout the country, such as Roscommon town, using the tools of remote working. The Government should capitalise on what it has announced in the budget and it needs to bring together a taskforce not just of the State bodies but of all of the expertise throughout the economy that could look at how we can incentivise and support businesses and provide them with the knowledge and know-how to encourage remote working and give a substantial boost to communities throughout the country.

With regard to the agricultural sector, several significant announcements were made yesterday. A €300 million fund will be put in place for new agri-environmental schemes. People can dismiss this and say €3 million is insufficient to put in place any type of agri-environmental schemes but it is a blank canvas for farmers to come forward with solutions on how to develop an agri-environmental scheme that supports farm incomes rather than what has happened heretofore, when the environmentalists have created hoops and hurdles for farmers to jump through. I actively encourage the farming community throughout the country to see how they can develop this.

The same issue arises with regard to the €40 million fund of targeted supports for the beef sector. I actively encourage the beef representative groups throughout the country to come forward now with proposals on how that funding can be drawn down in an innovative way to support beef farmers, particularly suckler farmers, throughout the country rather than letting officials in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine design a scheme that meets the administration objectives rather than the objectives of communities throughout the country.

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