Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister was in my home town, Callan, a few years ago on a day with similar weather to what we are having today. Some good projects, such as the one she was there for that day, are happening in some of our towns and villages. That is welcome but, as my colleagues said, there are still outstanding issues. I apologise in advance to anyone who has heard me talk about this before. The train is one of the things that really bothers me about transport in the constituency of Carlow-Kilkenny. We have the same train timetable since I was in college, which I hate to admit was 20 years ago. The last train leaves Dublin for Kilkenny at 6.35 p.m. I have raised this matter here before because we encourage people to use public transport. I would love to be able to use public transport, but unfortunately it is not an option for me or any of my constituency colleagues. They are in the same situation. It not only affects us, but everyone in the area.

We recently got a new Local Link bus to Carlow town which was welcome but unfortunately it does not serve the villages outside the town. It is a missed opportunity for connectivity and encouraging people to use public transport. A huge number of people, particularly in the housing environment we are in at the moment, would love to live in rural Ireland. They might originally be from there or be looking to relocate but it is not an option if there is no transport. That is something we need to get to grips with properly in our rural towns and villages.

The other issue is broadband. It is an issue that comes up consistently. We have unusual situations, such as a situation in Callan where part of the town has been serviced well with broadband but two or three streets seem to have been totally excluded. The residents have been told they have to wait another year or two. That affects people who are potentially trying to work from home. It is great that opportunity is available to so many people now, but it is not realistic if they cannot access broadband.

I will also mention child poverty in rural communities. The Children's Rights Alliance launched its Child Poverty Monitor last week, which showed that a basket of healthy groceries for a family living in a rural area was €169 compared to €147 in an urban area. We know that food poverty is a big issue and it affects rural areas differently. I hope the child poverty unit we heard about in the Department of the Taoiseach will examine the rural-urban divide for children living in rural areas. However, I am concerned that it was announced in December. It is June now and we have not heard much about what is happening with that.

As I said earlier, one of the most common issues businesses contact my office about is National Broadband Ireland, NBI. I have come across cases of broadband being laid along the road in front of a rural business but for some reason properties are left out and it is frustrating.

I will briefly mention a good initiative being rolled out by the Kilkenny LEADER partnership. We should look at this type of model to see whether it can be replicated in other towns and villages. It is called the Blue Towns Community Broadband Networks. It was developed as a pilot programme in the village of Piltown in south Kilkenny where the community developed an award-winning fibre to premises broadband network. It is community owned, which means that any funds generated go back into the community. It provides high capacity broadband for the community and has transformed life. People are able to study and work from home in the area and any benefits are coming back to the community. Initiatives like this one need to be encouraged and rolled out to other villages and towns. Some change is happening but a lot of progress still needs to be made.

We must also remember the role of the GP in rural Ireland. I met some GPs recently from a rural community who are doing excellent work in their area. Often they offer more than just a GP service. They are the first port of call for many issues people experience. We must remember their place in rural communities and that they run small rural businesses.

Many people from rural Ireland who are listening to this debate feel an awful lot more needs to be done, especially around transport, broadband and elements of poverty that are different than in urban areas.

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