Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

First, I thank the Minister and the people working in the Department for the excellent work they have been doing. The Minister is a very strong advocate for rural Ireland and I appreciate that, as he knows. I have no problem in acknowledging that. I want to highlight the concerns I and many others have about rural businesses. The Minister knows of the difficulties we were having already, and the pandemic has now meant further complications for our rural way of life and our small businesses, publicans, hardware shops and grocery shops. I have concerns about the way all these traders are being affected and am trying to get as many of those businesses as possible up and running again. Sadly, I am genuinely worried and fearful that many of them may not be able to open. I want the Minister and the people in his Department to keep working with those businesses in mind and to try to loosen up the red tape in the best way possible when it comes to running a small business in a rural location. They must encourage people to do this awfully important thing, which is, first, to create the one job for themselves and then create the environment to expand and employ a neighbour, a friend or another family member. That is how business works and how businesses grow.

I compliment the community groups that have played such a vital role during this crisis. We are going to lose so much of the business of the summer, including our agricultural shows, the likes of Puck Fair and all the excellent events that go on during the year, especially during the summer time. All these events have been cancelled. That is going to be an awful and detrimental economic blow for rural Ireland in particular. I want the Minister to have that at the forefront of his mind at all times because it is so important to keep the local economy going.

I compliment our farming organisations and the farmers who have been there throughout every crisis going back to the last economic crisis and financial crash. The one group we could always rely on to keep the wheels rolling was our farming community. It is no harm to remind people of that. The Minister does not have to be reminded, but it is no harm to wake up some of the other people in the Government now and then and let them know that we are an agriculture-based economy.

We very much appreciate our tourism sector and how important it is, but at the end of the day, agriculture and fisheries are our backbone. They are what we have always had. That is where we came from and that is what we have to nurture and protect. It is so important, for this Government and the incoming one, that those things are recognised, and when a programme for Government is being drawn up, I want the new Government to remember rural Ireland and the important role it has to play.

I again thank the Minister for his particular interest in our local improvement schemes. As the Minister knows, I fought very hard to ensure they were contained in the previous programme for Government.

The Minister kicked the ball into the back of the net by ensuring he kept that going. He delivered every penny he could. He certainly was not found wanting when it came to County Kerry and I always acknowledged that. I ask that, in light of the current economic crisis, the Government recognises how important that funding is and continues to provide it because there are roads leading into a house or houses. A Minister once said the funding was not important because a road was the last road, but it is the first road for a person who needs to exit onto it no matter where he or she is going.

I know the Minister recognises that, but I ask him if he can to show commitment to protecting funding for local improvement schemes. Our local authority makes a great job of delivering funding in a very cost effective way and a timely fashion. The scheme provides employment for local authorities in terms of seasonal and part-time workers, especially at the end of the year. I ask that the funding be announced as early as possible because that helps us to get through the work. I do not want to eat into the Minister's time.

See this speech in context