Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy. I heard the report and have seen the work done by many county boards across the country, led by the uachtarán of the GAA. I am very much aware that the GAA works in communities locally and nationally to address this challenge, through its national demographics committee and each county demographic officer. As I said, Our Rural Future contains a wide range of measures that will ensure all rural areas are attractive and viable places for people to study, live, work and raise their families.

Our Rural Future has had a number of significant funding investments in recent years, namely, the rural regeneration and development fund, the town and village renewal scheme and the outdoor recreation infrastructure scheme. The ethos of these schemes is to put facilities into the kinds of small towns and communities the Deputy referenced. Through Our Rural Future, many GAA clubs have become involved in the consultation process that is under way. I will extend an invitation to the national demographics committee of the GAA to meet me with its proposals from clubs across the country. We are currently involved in public consultations and we have just finished an online consultation in that regard.

In recent years, we have invested in the national broadband plan. We have made improvements in rural transport, something I have discussed with Deputy Wall, and we want to continue to do that. Through initiatives under, for example, the community recognition fund, we have made substantial investment in facilities in GAA clubs to make them even more attractive. I am focused on working with clubs and an organisation that has a presence in every parish. It has a contact system that very few other organisations have.

I am aware that in many areas we need a targeted approach. Some areas are doing well, but others are not. There was a 7% increase in population across the country between 2011 and 2022, but other areas show a large decline. I want to focus on that. While Our Rural Future is a broad document, I will also look for focused responses.

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