John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is always the start of an election campaign when Deputy Ring speaks. I want to continue from him. It is a hard act to follow. I thank the Deputy and his successor, the Minister for Rural and Community Development. The Department was closed down in the teeth of a recession, when it was probably more needed than ever, and reopened, thankfully, by the previous Government. It reaches into every corner of the country. It is not just about rural communities. Urban communities have benefitted from the Department too. Some of our regional towns and smaller places have benefitted. Deputy Ring mentioned Ballinrobe. I am struck by places in Kilkenny, which have faced economic decline and have not been the same since the 1970s, that are hopping now because of money they have got from the Department of Rural and Community Development. I think, in particular, of places like Graiguenamanagh. Any local businessperson there will say that this year and last year have been bumper years tourism-wise because there are facilities there now funded through the Minister's Department that they only dreamt of for decades. Every community in the country that is organised is in a position to benefit from the funding that is available. Deputy Ring mentioned some of the schemes, including the rural regeneration scheme. The laneways money is provided through the Minister's Department, as is the CLÁR funding. My county of Kilkenny, significant parts of which are designated CLÁR areas, has benefitted from CLÁR funding. The Department also provides the islands funding and so many other schemes, often through the councils.

I am struck by what Deputy Ring said about local authorities. Some local authorities are very good and very organised at drawing down money. Some are shocking. Most of them are good at some things and bad at other things. When it comes to the sourcing of funding for rural development in this country, generally speaking, it is the local authorities that fall down, not the Department itself. The Department is more than willing to provide support. Organised communities that put forward properly thought-through plans are being supported by the Minister and her Department. I thank her sincerely for that. I will name two places in my own county. Despite its success on the hurling field, when Ballyhale was bypassed a few years ago, virtually every business on the main street closed. The Department, first through the former Minister, Deputy Ring, then through the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, reopened the tea rooms and the community shop on the street in Ballyhale, and the community is back and functioning again. It is the same with Windgap village. I remember having both the former Minister, Deputy Ring, and the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, at different stages in Windgap, Piltown, Thomastown and other places that never saw the colour of the money. These small villages, in many cases, are getting hundreds of thousands of euro that they have never had an opportunity to get before. They get value for money in those communities. Facilities are built that are used, because they are owned by the community. They are thought of and brought to fruition by local voluntary groups that are getting financial support from the Government, as they should.

The final point I want to make, and I have spoken to the Minister about it before, is that I hope that as the role of the churches diminishes in rural communities, some of the funding will be available in future for burial grounds. I am finding in Kilkenny that there are some communities without a priest or a church structure of whatever denomination. They have cemeteries that are overflowing and need extension and they are not in a position to do that work. Perhaps some of the schemes available through the Minister's Department could be tweaked. We are finding that the local voluntary sector is taking up the slack from the lack of having a reverend person in the community, and that is going to be the case into the future. Those local communities could do with that little bit of a hand-up in the future too.

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