Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The Government's rural development policy looks good on paper. The Minister has already referred to several success stories, but in some cases those success stories are divorced from the reality. In many towns and villages across west Cork and Ireland, community after community has to fight and fundraise for basic services. In my constituency, villages such as Drimoleague and Kealkill are being proactive in seeking infrastructure to enable children to walk safely to school and older people to walk to the pub or post office. This is basic stuff for which nobody should have to spend years fighting and campaigning.

Family resource centres are an invaluable amenity. They are one-stop shops for many vulnerable families, individuals and groups. However, the centres in towns such as Bandon and Skibbereen have been searching for permanent locations for years now and need proper Government funding. Some of those centres had to move five times in the space of approximately two years. Other towns and villages have permanent family resource centres in HSE-owned buildings. Places across Cork South-West will be waiting years for broadband despite Government promises. Even more frustrating is the case in Riverstick where one estate does not have a connection when the rest of the village does. Bandon, which is a big town with a population that is growing all the time, only has a playground due to the incredible local campaign of a group of parents and the support of the community who raised the money. The same is true for Bantry and Innishannon. Dunmanway is the only town in west Cork with a public swimming pool. As a result, children are left on waiting lists for years for swimming classes. The list goes on and on.

The State has an obligation to provide these services. It is the least people should expect. A sustainable society requires balanced regional development and this needs to be a social and economic priority. Successive governments have located a disproportionate amount of our health, education and cultural institutions in the more built-up areas. This drives a model of development that works against the kind of regional balance required for Ireland to thrive as a whole. While our cities suffer from a shortage of housing and unaffordable rents, many people who would love the opportunity to move or return to rural areas cannot do so.

The Social Democrats prioritise the public provision of services and supports that make life affordable and allow people to participate fully in the society they live in, including in rural areas. That is not only about health and social care but everyday facilities, such as parks, sports facilities, cycle lanes, public toilets and community centres. These are social infrastructure that enrich and strengthen communities. We are a long way from having all our towns and villages supported by appropriate facilities. The rural policy looks great on paper but it in no way reflects the reality of life in rural Ireland at the moment.

There are several major issues that need to be addressed to help implement these plans. There is a clear need for joined-up thinking. The rural policy intersects with many other areas and Departments, but too often these intersections are absent in practice. For example, the document talks about supporting tourism in rural areas and SME growth, which is obviously important for many rural areas, but there is very little awareness of the challenges faced by businesses in the hospitality sector and other SMEs. There is some acknowledgement of the rise in operating costs in the context of the policy, but there is nothing about what is being done to address these costs. Unjustifiable and continually increasing insurance premiums are a major issue for small businesses. How does this policy interact with financial policy? Does the Minister for Finance understand this is a major challenge for tourism and hospitality and our creative and recreational sectors? The rural policy says all the right things about supporting these industries but what is being done to address the challenges they are facing?

Caravan parks, hotels and activity centres all face significant insurance costs, especially when compared with the UK and other European countries. Why are insurance companies allowed to charge people so much in Ireland?

Another operating cost is the transaction fees charged by commercial banks. A significant proportion of people pay by card now, as we have all seen happening, but every time you pay in a café or a small family business with a card, it costs them. The banks are imposing these charges on the hospitality sector but nothing is being done in response.

Fishing is another example. While the policy refers to the importance of fishing in rural communities, there is not enough focus on measures that do anything, especially for inshore fishing. I have repeatedly raised the challenges for the inshore fishing sector with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Significantly, there needs to be far greater investment in public marine infrastructure, as identified by the seafood task force. Those are basic things. We need small piers on our coast and offshore islands to support fishers locally. Slipways would be of assistance rather than having piers that drop off. Such measures help families stay in the area and help support the type of sustainable fishing we should be prioritising. However, there is insufficient annual investment to maintain public marine infrastructure, not to mention improving it, and both the rural policy and the recently published islands policy need to address this deficit. A ban on pairing in inshore areas would have a massive impact, but there does not seem to be a connection between this policy and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

The second major issue is the fundamental flaw at the centre of how public money is distributed. Schemes are put in place and communities must compete against each other to get basic public investment. Currently, the Department of Rural and Community Development has a scheme for the construction of new community centres. This is obviously great and welcome, but it will inevitably be oversubscribed. What happens to communities that are deemed not to be worthy of funding? Why are they less deserving? When will they get their community centres?

There is also an insistence on projects being shovel ready, which is a euphemism for the hours, days and weeks of effort and work put in by local volunteers and groups. Why is it so hard to get funding for community projects in Ireland? When funding is awarded, Ministers, Government Deputies and councillors scramble to announce it ahead of each other, sometimes with the implication they had an influence in the decision-making for things such as community centres. This perpetuates systems of clientelism and parish pump politics which make some public representatives look good while communities do all the work with no guarantee of success. The whole system needs to change. Funding should be awarded based on need. There should be rolling funding instruments with integrated supports. This policy should be underpinned by a multiyear implementation plan where communities can understand what funding will be available and can work towards it with the support of the Department and local authorities.

There are two particular examples in Cork South-West under this policy that are worth highlighting. Shannonvale, near Clonakilty, has been dealing with a wastewater issue for years. Untreated water is entering the Argideen river and the local park due to an old and overflowing tank. I have repeatedly raised this issue with Minister after Minister. Over a year ago, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, visited the site. He seemed to promise to fix the issue but nothing has happened. For too long, locals have had to put up with this. They have had to fight about it and raise the issue continually. Irish Water and the council have a solution which needs funding from the Government. It should be as simple as that. The river and park in Shannonvale should be at the heart of the village. The park is a tiny green space in the centre of the village and it used to be the heart of the community for festivals. It is next to the river where people used to swim. Instead, it is now dilapidated and overflowing with untreated wastewater. I will never forget during the pandemic when the travel limits were in place, the children in that area had nowhere to play and no green space. The Government's rural policy commits to investing in water and wastewater infrastructure to support the development of rural towns and villages. When will the people in places such as Shannonvale see the benefit of this? Will they have to fight against each other, rally and lobby, or how will it happen?

The other matter relates to a bus for young people in Beara. Since September, young people living in Beara, out on a peninsula, have been denied public transport to access education and day services in Bantry. A bus was provided, thanks only to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and Beara West Family Resource Centre, as well as personal donations - some from the people who are using the bus out of their disability allowance. The new 232 bus service was supposed to address their needs. It finally happened after a lot of work, but the young people and their families have identified several issues with it already which will not only impact them, but also people with reduced mobility. For example, there should be a bus stop closer to the hospital and St. Goban's Further Education and Training Centre. Under the current proposals, students and people going to the hospital will be dropped off at the square, a 20 minute walk away from the college. The situation is deeply frustrating for the students, who have been fighting since last summer for a proper bus service and, in many instances, missed educational programme days in their classes. The Government is aware of the issues, which I have brought up repeatedly in the Dáil and directly with the Minister for Transport and the Minister of State at the Department of Health with responsibility for disabilities. I cannot understand why this service was not developed in consultation with local people, in particular, the service users themselves. A strong theme in the rural policy is supporting communities to create their own future but there was no form of shared decision making or consultation in this important case, for example, and, I am sure, many more. The Local Link office is doing everything it can, but ultimately the National Transport Authority makes decisions on routes and timetables. The Minister must act to support more inclusive transport.

We are talking about the impacts of the Government's rural policy. There is a significant gap between this policy and what communities are experiencing. There needs to be a fundamental change to the way this policy is implemented if it is to be in any way successful.

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