Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Peter Burke.

The Minister is very welcome here today. I grew up over a newsagent shop in Boyle. In the last ten years when the recession came, I saw how small towns like that were deeply impacted. When I was growing up, there were at least one or two football teams in our own street. Maybe 150 people lived over shops on our street, but now it is down to one or two. That is the same in every town and village around the country. Now is the time to address those serious situations. The Minister has made a significant difference. His Department and its budget have given hope and funding to towns and villages around the country, which needs to be continued.

Deputy Tully is right in pointing out the many over-shop dwellings that were once a good house. Maybe we all in our haste to get out of town into new houses have left good properties. People say there is a housing crisis and yet towns and villages have many vacant houses and places over shops in which many families were raised. I know standards have improved, but we need to look at it again and address it.

I will be a bit parochial. My town of Boyle has received significant funding in recent years. Nearly €1 million was allocated to knock down a hotel and make it look better. We also have a cycleway between Lough Key Forest Park and the town. Much more funding has come into that town as with every town and village.

No Opposition Deputy can deny that. The past four or five years have seen generosity and help extended to these towns. The Minister referred to the rural regeneration fund and I have a few related issues. Lough Key Forest Park is near the town where I live, and I was involved with that 20 years ago in politics. It is absolutely brilliant. The local authority is working with Coillte. We do not have a hotel, however. We had two hotels, but they are now closed.

It is a tourist area and a tourist town, but we do not have a hotel. Nobody will build a hotel because, unfortunately, it is possible and cheaper to buy a hotel in every town and village around the country than to build one. There are only five or six towns like this throughout the country and we need some mechanism in place. Perhaps the local authority could build a hotel and lease it out to a hotelier. A hotel is now a part of the social infrastructure, because it is where people go for coffee, weddings, communions, etc.. It is embarrassing that we have the King House, Boyle Abbey and Lough Key Forest Park but we do not have a hotel. We need assistance and help in trying to get something like that. Does the Minister have any views on how we can address that serious situation? There are only five or six towns in the country with this unique problem. Nobody will build a hotel in this climate unless the local authority were to get funding and then lease it out.

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