Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is hard to overstate the level of disconnect which appears to exist between what the Government believes it is doing for rural Ireland and what people on the ground in rural Ireland are actually experiencing. For decades we have talked about balanced regional development to take away some of the imbalance between rural, urban and city economies. When we look at job creation, we see an Offaly where there were just four visits by the IDA in 2022. If we are serious about creating jobs in a county that has seen a great deal of injustice with the ending of peat harvesting, we need to get real. Government needs to set real targets for the IDA for the economy in the midlands and what is expected there.

The rural planning system, no more than the planning system in general, is still a mess. Young rural dwellers cannot build a home even on their own parents’ land. Organisations like Macra na Feirme, while welcoming some progress, are blue in the face from pointing out the lack of viability and prospects impacting young farmers.

Yesterday we had this confirmed on agriland.ie, where it was stated that at least 10,600 jobs are expected to go from farm and farm-related work right up to 2035. The document we are discussing today, Our Rural Future, speaks of an inextricable link between diversification of farming enterprises and of sustainable lands such as forestry, bio economy and renewable energy-related development. Yet by every single metric, forestry is an absolute disaster. Only yesterday, the Social Economic Environmental Forestry Association, SEEFA, called the situation a new rock bottom.

I accept there are some positive developments and I know the Minister was in my own constituency of Offaly recently, but there is a great deal to be done and that is the reality.

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