Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to be here to speak on rural development and rural Ireland in general. People often talk about rural Ireland being left behind and yet we are conscious that people who live in rural communities enjoy and treasure the communities in which they live because they feel supported and they have achieved so much, often in spite of investment rather than because of it and, likewise, often in spite of the way the Government has left them as an afterthought rather than because of what the Government has done for them. There is an opportunity as we move forward.

The Covid situation has emphasised the point for many of us that people can work outside of the big cities and people do not need to travel to the centre of the universe to do everything. If we can have sufficient broadband in place, efficient telecommunications infrastructure, good roads, good places to live and a healthy community, then people do not need to go to urban centres to survive and to function. The answer to all of this is for the Government to invest in rural broadband. We have been crying out for it for years. Unfortunately, many people are disillusioned about the possibility of the Government delivering on its promises. That is the case in the area I come from, Leitrim, and in north Roscommon or other very rural areas. People have very little faith in the Government delivering broadband in a timely manner that will make a difference to their lives now. That is what they need to see happen.

We also need to look at a number of other issues. I refer to the support for small business and small enterprise. Some great work is done by the Department, such as the LEADER fund that has been trying to get small business going in rural areas. However, it does not do enough of it. There is not enough support in place. I spoke to a person in business recently who told me that they tried to be successful and to promote a project, but they were told not to go to the body concerned with half-baked projects. The difficulty is that there is nowhere to go to develop and to grow projects into something that will work, in particular when they are in a rural area where the infrastructure is not in place.

The quality of life is excellent. People who live in rural areas are very grateful for their lifestyle, yet so much of the trend seems to be to push people into urban settings and more congregated settings. For someone like me or many others who live in rural areas, we see that there is an awful lot of backward thinking in that respect. Ireland is unique in Europe in that so many people live in dispersed rural communities. They work and live very well together. They have a great lifestyle and we need to do everything to make sure that they can continue to do that. In so many rural areas people cannot get planning permission to build a house. It is totally ridiculous, yet we are forcing people into urban centres where there is congestion and there are many social problems and other issues that arise from being so congested.

We must also focus on rural tourism in particular and put adequate infrastructure in place in areas where we do not have other industries. Tourism is an industry that can be made grow and can develop jobs for people in local, rural economies. We must be very conscious of rural towns and villages. Probably half the buildings are boarded up in numerous towns throughout my constituency. The buildings are in ruins. The people who own them do not have the money to do anything with them. In fact, rather than being an asset, they are a liability. In spite of that, the Government refuses time and again to do anything with respect to putting a grant scheme or other measure in place to incentivise people to bring those buildings back into use as homes. Houses are one of the things we are also missing in many parts of rural Ireland where there is also a significant housing crisis. The advantages of living in rural Ireland can be explained to people. The possibilities are there, but the Government must put the emphasis in place to ensure it delivers for people.

Another issue that has been overlooked for a long time by successive Governments is probably a reflection of the permanent government's attitude to rural Ireland. I refer to the treatment of children going to school. Such children cannot get a school bus. In my view, it should simply be part of free education that one can get a bus to school, yet children have to pay for the bus, to go a certain pick-up point to get it, and if there is not a certain number on the route then a bus will not be provided and, if a child is not going to the nearest school, he or she cannot get a bus. There are all these obstacles and rules put in place to ensure that people cannot get access to school transport. In the view of most who can stand back and look at it, there are a whole set of circumstances to push people out of rural Ireland and to get them all to live in towns and not to live in rural areas anymore. It is just a reflection of that mindset and that needs to change. The Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, and the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, who in fairness is also a person who comes from and lives in rural Ireland, need to look at this. They need to challenge seriously the mindset that says urban is better and rural is worse. The way to do that is to put the infrastructure and funding in place to deliver for people in rural Ireland.

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