Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Ó Murchú.

The issues relating to rural Ireland have been well voiced during the debate, and for the vast majority living in rural areas, the big issues that face them are similar to those that face the rest of the country, namely, those of housing and health. For an awful lot of people living in my constituency, when they look for health services, they do not get the same level of service they would get if they lived in Dublin or other large urban areas, and that is a big issue. There are similar issues with home help and care of the elderly and people with disabilities. All those matters fall into those categories.

The specific issue I wish to focus on relates to the life of the small rural parish. According to the Central Statistics Office, CSO, figures from the recent census, the population per square kilometre in a lot of regions, not least in rural areas, is below 35 to 40 people. When a rural parish falls below that level, it is in terminal decline. It will not be able to field a football team, keep open a school or last. Those parishes need to get targeted assistance to ensure they can survive, because they are not going to otherwise. Some of the towns and villages around them are doing okay and some of them will have houses built in them, and there was talk earlier about how when a housing estate is built, it helps such areas, but in many of those rural parishes, there is no town. Very often, there is difficulty with getting planning permission for one-off rural houses and with a range of matters. School transport is a huge problem.

Everything is designed to push people further and further away from those areas and into the small town that might be beside it. This applies to vast areas of the country. I come from a rural parish called Aghavas and there is no town in it. In the one next to it, Drumreilly, there is no town in that either, nor in the one across the way, Gortletteragh. Cloone is a small village but, again, it did not get the huge number of houses that some places got during the boom and it is in terminal decline. The schools in those parishes, in the next ten to 15 years, may not even be there.

These kinds of parishes will need to get specific resources. Grants, schemes and so on are useful and worthwhile, but places such as I have described, which are easy to measure, such as any area that comprises under 40 people per square kilometre, need to get specific attention and additional resources. There needs to be a way of doing that. The Government can do it if it has the intention of looking after and ensuring rural Ireland will prosper. It is from those small spaces that the rest will come and grow.

See this speech in context