Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

An Tóchar would have been the causeway through the bog once upon a time.

I am encouraged by Aghabog's progress. As a next step, perhaps we can stick in hurling with any teacher with the hands for it and they can emulate their county heroes who did so well last weekend. In the community I come from in Togher on the south side of Cork city, we would have been a rural community until a few decades ago. My work is with rural communities in my constituency in Ballygarvan, Ballinahassig, Tracton, Raffeen and places like that. Indeed, as Deputy Sherlock might be know, there are rural parts of Togher, such as Spur Hill, Sexton’s Lane, Lehenaghmore and so on.

I listened with interest to the Minister’s very entertaining contribution. It reminded me somewhat of the Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan who told the British people that in lots of ways they had never had it so good. On the one hand, we have that type of comment from the Government. I suspect that in a while we will hear something very different from other Deputies. The truth of the picture in rural Ireland is complex and quite different. To some extent, there has been an element of papering over the cracks by those in government who have contributed to the debate. Good work is going on. There are positive things happening in rural Ireland but there are also some profound challenges. Of that there is no doubt. We make a mistake, and I know that the Minister understands this, by treating rural Ireland as a monolith or something that faces the same challenges throughout. Rural communities from the top to the bottom of Ireland are very different and diverse and have very diverse needs.

The Our Rural Future strategy has made some welcome progress with the establishment of remote working hubs in many areas and increased supports for addressing vacancy in dereliction. The strategy makes little reference, however, or no reference in some instances, to some of the greatest challenges to people who are looking to stay in rural Ireland or to move back, or move for the first time, to rural Ireland in affordable housing, childcare and access to reliable public transport. While these issues are not unique to rural Ireland, they are magnified due to decades of underinvestment and neglect. Rural communities can be thriving and vibrant places to live in, but that requires delivery on key issues which matter to people living in those communities.

The Minister referred to population. It is true that the population of rural Ireland has not been so great in many decades. Again, the picture is somewhat more complicated. The population growth is slower than it is in urban areas. That is not a problem that is unique to Ireland and is probably replicated in any developed country but there are places where significant depopulation continues to happen. In north and west Mayo, in west Galway, in large parts of west and south Donegal, in parts of the Acting Chair’s constituency of Tipperary South and in south Kerry, the level of depopulation is substantial, with a more than 10% reduction in the numbers living in some of those communities. That may be the position in a minority of cases. However, there is a substantial enough number of communities where the population is decreasing. The fact that the population of rural Ireland as a whole is increasing does not in any way undermine the fact that for many communities, the challenges are as severe as ever, and those communities feel that they are fighting for the very future of their communities still at this stage.

There must be a commitment to implementing rural-proofing mechanisms. This is something which Sinn Féin has introduced legislation on in the Dáil which would require Departments and State bodies to rural-proof their policies.

In the North, we have pushed for the needs of people living in rural areas. This features prominently within Government policy there through the Rural Needs Act (Northern Ireland) 2016. Establishing mechanisms that ensure due regard for the needs of rural areas is a crucial part of the policy development and implementation.

Our Rural Future sets out the aim of developing a rural-proofing too. The external consultation and guidelines were published just this year despite the strategy being in place for two years. These guidelines are useful, but it is important that they are put in place on a cross-departmental basis.

As I have already indicated, in the course of the past century the balance of the population in this State has shifted. There has been a significant growth in the population imbalance since the 1960s in particular. If one goes back to the first couple of Dáileanna, the proportion of Dublin and urban Deputies as opposed to the rural ones, even though there were only 120 or 130 Members of the House, was a very different from what we have now. That reflects the fact that this was a very different country as regards the urban-rural balance.

This has given rise to significant challenges for many communities. I have already touched on the fact that not all rural communities are the same. There is a significant difference even within a county between a farming community in the Golden Vale or up in the Galtee Mountains and a Gaeltacht community in Connemara, an island community on Inishbofin, a place like Aghabog or places in rural Border communities. Rural communities are not monolithic or identical. To some extent, we can look at progress in strong villages or the rural areas surrounding them and it can mask some of the challenges that some of the more remote areas face. I will not name any of them. However, the Minister named five or six places with populations of more than 5,000 and two with populations in excess of 20,000. While those places serve rural communities, they are not really the heart of what we are talking about and they are not the most challenged.

Some of the biggest challenges we face relate to services. Perhaps the number one challenge is the pressure on GP services. There is also the pressure on childcare services. When we consider the loss of population in the communities to which I refer, we can see that local shops, pubs and schools are being closed as a result. The closing of schools can be the most emotive issue of all. As the demographic bulge moves through into secondary school, we will potentially see pressure on our schools again. The latter is something we need to safeguard against. The population bulge we saw in the past ten years protected rural schools. We need to look at that again to ensure that rural schools continue to be protected.

In many ways, the community and voluntary sector is often at its strongest in rural communities and we see the whole community pull together and the local community development committees facilitated much good work. There are causes of optimism as well as pessimism on the points made around remote work.

I believe I am close to being out of time. I am not the best at keeping an eye on the clock or doing the maths. My final point relates to childcare and public transport, both of which are crucial. We should be aware that this is not just an Irish problem. There are elements that are particular to Ireland, but this is a global problem. This is the shift in population, and we need to look at the best international exemplars in order to ensure that rural communities thrive, are sustained and have a vibrant future.

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