Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this plan, which outlines the Government's commitment to ongoing and much-needed supports for workers and enterprises still impacted adversely by the ongoing pandemic. There are still many challenges and difficulties for different sectors of our economy and thus for a sizeable proportion of our workforce. That cohort of people, be it employer or employee, needs the reassurance that these much-needed and essential supports will be continued. A clear message from this plan is the emphasis on job creation, which I warmly welcome, and the ambition that needs to be realised of having 2.5 million people in employment by 2024. With job creation we need employment opportunities in all regions, not just the major urban centres. In getting beyond the pandemic and rebuilding the economy, we need strong measures to regenerate many rural parts, including the Border region, particularly the counties I have the privilege of representing, Cavan and Monaghan.

Tourism and hospitality, with their reach into every parish, are critical to both the urban and rural economies and will need continued support to rebuild the sector and grow visitor numbers. Today was an important and exciting day for the sector, and many employers and employees are looking forward to reopening their businesses and greeting visitors again. Following on from this strategy will be the revised NDP. I very warmly welcome the unambiguous commitment on the part of the Minister, Deputy McGrath, some time ago, reiterated more recently, that a central focus of this plan would be regional development.

Key to regional development would be the upgrade of infrastructure, including some national and non-national roads. In many instances in rural Ireland, we have good social infrastructure, including schools, local health facilities, sporting and community facilities. We need jobs, however, to retain and, hopefully, grow the population in those communities.

Alongside CAP support for our farming and agrifood sector, the national development plan should contain specific measures to support this sector which is the prime driver of economic development in rural Ireland. Farming has undergone a major transformation. As a country, we should recognise, without equivocation, the sustainable farming systems we have. The Border region and the agrifood sector will, unfortunately, face further difficulties due to Brexit. The Government's policy must continue to be supportive of a sector that has had considerable growth in employment going back to the late 1990s. The sector has obtained new markets because of the quality products manufactured by our agrifood sector. There has been huge investment in research and innovation. We must ensure that, due to the many challenges the sector will face with climate change, etc., there will be continued and much-needed Government support to ensure it continues to provide worthwhile employment, as well as generating much economic activity in every parish in our State.

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