Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat. I welcome the Minister, Deputy Ring, and this opportunity to get answers to some questions. I thank the Minister for the funding that has been made available to the community and voluntary sector and I commend the meitheal of volunteers that have done Trojan work throughout the country. We need to examine the value of the community and voluntary sector. I refer the Minister to the community employment supervisors and their pension entitlements, which issue has been through the many mechanisms of the State. When can they expect to get justice?

I know the Minister will want to join me and Deputy Calleary in sending sympathy and solidarity to the parents and family of five-year-old Ben Duffy from Tourmakeady who lost his life earlier this week in a tragic accident. I know also that the Minister will be as horrified as all right-minded people by the killing of George Floyd in America. I take this opportunity to send solidarity and sympathy to his family and friends. This is not enough. We need to listen and to act with humanity. Community development, which is under the remit of the Minister, Deputy Ring, is about building capacity in people and empowering people and communities, providing equality of opportunity and ensuring that everyone is included and treated with respect. Is the Minister committed to stamping out racism? This commitment can be demonstrated by ending the direct provision system and introducing hate crime legislation. As Minister for Rural and Community Development, what has Deputy Ring done to advance these two actions and what can he commit to do in the future under the rural Ireland and community development remit to ensure that everybody is included? I welcome the Minister's earlier statement that nobody would be left behind because we are leaving whole cohorts of people behind. The Minister also referenced vulnerable people and their not being left behind. There is nobody more vulnerable than the people who are locked up in the direct provision centres. I ask the Minister to speak to that issue.

I also want to raise the issue of the community and voluntary stability scheme and the operational fund. Will the Minister indicate if it will be paid out at the end of July or the end of August? This is what the community groups want to know. I appreciate there were a large number of applications for funding but the community groups would like to know when they can expect it.

As regards the LEADER programme, what provision has the Minister made for community and enterprise projects that have been allocated money which cannot now be drawn down? For example, communities are unable to fundraise the matching funds because of the restrictions on them at the moment, and some businesses that had planned to expand are now fighting for their very survival. Will the Minister give assurances that businesses that have drawn down funding in the current programme and cannot meet the employment targets or may even have to close will be exempt from any of the penalties to which they would be subject in normal times?

What provision has the Minister made to cover the interim period between the end of the current LEADER programme and the beginning of the next one? As regards the structure of the LEADER programme, is he giving consideration to returning to a community-led programme? It was a major mistake under the last programme, as the EU Commission agreed. We had a model of very good practice that was commended throughout the EU and it was brought under the local authorities against the wishes of the people who gathered in community centres throughout this country to tell the Government it was a mistake. There is an opportunity now to review and revise that.

I welcome the request for the revision of the TEN-T core network to include Ireland's western arc region, which was made on 19 August last year. The Minister will agree that it was a major mistake to take it out in the first place. It should never have been taken out. It was acknowledged that without the required infrastructure, not least the transport infrastructure, our potential for economic growth will stall, and the lack of high-quality connectivity within the Atlantic economic corridor has been a major impediment to its development and potential to act as a counterbalance to Dublin and the east. I welcome the response and the letter received from the EU Commission on 10 October giving assurance that the Commission is ready to co-operate very closely with the Irish authorities and that the concerns and specifics of the Irish situation will be fully taken into account in the review process. Will the Minister confirm that his Department will push ahead with the development of the Atlantic economic corridor and that the critical infrastructure projects will be delivered in the lifetime of the next Government if his party is part of it? The opportunities identified by the Atlantic economic corridor to drive the low-carbon, high-value strategy are game-changing. Will the Minister ensure it is supported at an EU level by leveraging all funds available through the EU as well as at a national level?

It is deeply concerning to me and Sinn Féin that the west and north west have been downgraded from a more developed region to a region in transition. The fact of the matter is that all key economic indicators show that we are at best standing still and at worst in decline. I will leave my contribution at that to allow some answers and will hand over to my colleagues.

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