Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Indeed, that is a prescient point about how some people, not the Ceann Comhairle, view the expenditure of money in urban Ireland versus rural Ireland. I thank Deputy Ó Cuív for raising the matter. I am happy to respond on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Rural and Community Development. The Deputy raised an interesting point about where the responsibility falls. That is not to shirk the broader issue. However, it is the view of the Department of Rural and Community Development that it has no remit in regard to funding for public roads and that this is an operational matter for the local authority. Further, it considers that each local authority is mandated to determine its own spending priorities, while having regard to locally identified needs. I am not taking that as shirking the issue but more to provide the Deputy with the response of officialdom. The CLÁR scheme to which the Deputy refers was originally launched in 2001. It provides funding for small-scale capital projects in rural areas that have experienced significant levels of depopulation. The scheme was closed in 2010 and was reopened in 2016. CLÁR, as originally constituted, leveraged existing funding streams across a wide variety of developments including group water schemes, roads and sports capital projects. The Deputy knows this well, obviously. CLÁR was restructured and reopened in 2016. The scheme now has an increased focus on collaboration between communities and local authorities. The leveraging aspect to which I referred has been discontinued. At present, the Department of Rural and Community Development has no plans to refocus the CLÁR scheme on leveraging funding or to open a specific strand for roads. That aside, the point the Deputy makes is a reality for communities in certain parts of the country including those he referenced in his own constituency in Connemara.

I am aware that the Government has established an interdepartmental group on managing coastal change to scope out an approach for the development of a national co-ordinated strategy to manage the projected impact of coastal change to our coastal communities, economy, heritage, culture and environment. The interdepartmental group is jointly chaired by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Office of Public Works, OPW, and is due to bring forward options and recommendations for the Government to consider. Coastal protection and localised flooding issues are matters, in the first instance, for the local authorities to investigate. In order to assist them, the OPW has undertaken a national assessment of coastal erosion, including erosion rates, under the Irish coastal protection strategy study. The results of this study have been published on the OPW website. These data now enable the country and its local authorities to develop appropriate plans to try to mitigate the issues that Deputy Ó Cuív has raised .

Local authorities can, of course, carry out coastal protection works using their own resources. They can also put forward proposals to relevant Departments to fund appropriate measures. I understand that interventions or hard defences have the potential to cause problems further along the coast. From my time as Minister of State with responsibility for the OPW, I remember it is always a concern that by fixing a problem on one part of the coast, it moves along to another part. What I am saying to Deputy Ó Cuív is that an interdepartmental group is looking at how to protect our coastal communities, how to protect from coastal erosion and how to address issues related to that. Obviously, access is a really big part of it. I will take back his suggestion to the Government in regard to CLÁR and how he believes that has potential to be of assistance here. I just wanted to share with him the view of the Department. Most appropriately, perhaps, I will take back to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and the Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform with responsibility for the OPW the suggestion, in the context of their work on that interdepartmental group, that consideration would be given to the issues the Deputy has raised around that access and the challenges it poses for local communities.

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