Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I welcome these funds and schemes but they are tackling the symptoms of the problems. The problems themselves are not being tackled. Why are so many towns and villages in this country trending towards vacancy? Why is that the case? At the heart of that is an economic model that is basically making commuter and dormitory towns of these places, where they have become hollow husks and empty towns during the daytime, where people simply sleep at night. That is happening right across the country.

The State is pulling services out of these towns. The Minister closed a social welfare office in Castlepollard, for example, which obviously reduces the footfall in the town and reduces opportunities for businesses. Fine Gael opened a constituency office in the town. If the town got a swap of a social welfare office for a Fine Gael constituency office, I know what they would prefer. That is a particular issue there.

The Government itself also owns vast tracts of vacant properties. The HSE has a portfolio of 214 vacant properties. The OPW has a portfolio of 82 vacant properties. We need to get back to how we get enterprise and business developing in these towns in the first place so we do not have to treat the symptoms.

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