Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Tá brón orm. Níl mo chuid Gaeilge an-láidir. B'fhearr liom mo chuid a rá as Béarla.

I believe the Minister of State said previously that the success of Údarás na Gaeltachta depends on its alignment with the needs of the Gaeltacht communities which are constantly changing. I would concur. The needs of our Gaeltacht communities are constantly changing for certain. Their needs are getting more urgent as communities such as the smaller ones in Cork, Meath and Waterford are being left behind. They feel it too. They feel like the rest of the country is evolving economically while their once-thriving local economies are being steadily eroded away. I gContae Phort Láirge, the population of Gaeltacht na nDéise is rising yet there are frustrations. You can barely get a phone signal down there and the lack of broadband access is a serious disservice to local business. Additionally, in recent times the Garda barracks closed, the community doctor closed and in the last few months, An Post closed the last and only post office in the community. This means that local residents, including elderly people collecting pensions and doing their day-to-day business in the friendly local post office they have known all their lives, now must travel 12 km to Dungarvan to do their essential business.

I, along with others in the community, pleaded with An Post to save this vital local resource and we pleaded with the Government to intervene. Sadly, neither listened. This is a prime example of where Údarás na Gaeltachta could and should intervene. I would like to see a change in the governance structure of the organisation to allow it to give the kind of support that could have saved the post office there and other community services.

Recently, I sought information from the Department on the level of expenditure provided to Gaeltacht areas since 2018. The answers I received were deeply disappointing and shocking in relation to the Waterford Gaeltacht but they go some way towards explaining why Gaeltacht na nDéise is seeing the loss of so many of its vital services. The responses I received to the parliamentary questions told me that Gaeltacht Dhún na nGall has received a total capital expenditure of €1.13 million in that time.

Port Láirge received a total capital expenditure of just €6,955. However, in two other funding programme responses which allocated capital and current expenditure between 2020 and 2024, of €38.9 million spent across the Gaeltachts, the Waterford Gaeltacht’s share was just €6,955 and of a maintenance fund running from 2018 to 2024, which expended €15.76 million, just €60,000 was advanced to the Waterford Gaeltacht. This morning, during Questions on Promised Legislation with the Tánaiste, I heard the Minister of State tell me to stop talking down my county. I can tell him I have no need to talk down my county. The supporting evidence is here. The Government does it quite happily.

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