Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Tá áthas orm go bhfuil an tAire Stáit anseo tráthnóna. Mar dhuine as Chonamara agus atá ina chónaí i gConamara, tuigfidh sé cén fáth go bhfuil díomá orm maidir leis an bplean seo.

I feel sorry for the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, in terms of the way in which he has been put in the position of trying to defend a plan that is literally just a reheated dinner. Not only is it a reheated dinner from yesterday, it is one from months and years ago. Basically, the Departments - including the Minister of State's own Department - have listed all their actions and said that, inevitably, every action they are taking or proposing to take is obviously going to have some effect in rural Ireland. When one analyses the plan, however, one discovers that it contains nothing new. If there is anything new in the plan, it is a promise to spend €20 million a year in 600 towns, which is €33,000 per town. As someone who is involved in plenty of these schemes, I believe we should be putting money into them. An average community centre costs over €1 million. The Minister of State opened a community centre recently in Cong that cost over €1 million. That is the reality. Funding of €33,000 would not pay for the tarmacadam footpath outside a community centre. Some work is being done in the village nearest to where I live, Corr na Móna. This work is being done by the community. If it was being done by the local authority, we would be talking about funding of a few hundred thousand euro for one footpath. These are real costs.

When we look at the action plan for rural development, it is interesting that costings are not provided in respect of the extra measures to be delivered over the next three years. There is something that is even more chilling is the fact that it appears to be a case of "Thank you very much for the plan for rural towns and villages; now can we have a plan for rural Ireland?" I cannot see any significant strategic approach to some issues. For example, the first question one is asked at any meeting in a rural area relates to roads. All we get is a rehash of whatever major plans the Government has for the main routes. The Minister of State and I know that the reality is that our regional and county roads need upgrades if business is to be attracted. There is nothing in the plan about putting sewage systems into those towns and villages that do not have them. There is nothing about extending water supplies to those houses in the State that do not have a connection, either through a group water scheme or the main supply. The reality in respect of the rural broadband scheme is very simple. In the next two years, private companies - with no State assistance - will connect 300,000 properties to high-speed broadband and in many cases to e-fibre. I welcome that, even though in the newspapers this week the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works somehow managed to criticise the moves. In the same period, we will be lucky if the Government manages to sign a contract in respect of the national broadband scheme.

The reality is that the network must be remapped. I have a question for the Minister of State in that regard. The Government must remap all the work for the umpteenth time, when everybody has known for five years that the answer to this problem is the running of a little hair-like line into every house and business in the State at a net cost to the Exchequer of about one fifth of the proposed cost of bringing water to Dublin from the Shannon. When I read the plan-----

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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There is a chilling statement in the plan regarding the promotion of town and village housing schemes as an alternative to one-off housing.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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As Professor Caulfield has pointed out, this State has a 4,000 year legacy of dispersed communities. Parishes are built on it, townlands are built on it and our entire geography is built on it.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy has gone way over time.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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This Government is hellbent on destroying the thing that gives us in the rural parishes of Ireland-----

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy is way over time.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Ask the hurlers from a County Clare parish of 300 people who are playing in an All Ireland final what makes them great. They will say that it is the structure of their communities. I thank the Acting Chair, I could not hear him.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I am not surprised, but the Deputy will hear me the next time.

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Ó Cuív for his impassioned speech, although I will not respond to everything he said. I am speaking on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, who, together with the Taoiseach, myself and several other Ministers, got a great welcome in the Ballymahon library from the cathaoirleach, councillors and staff there.

The action plan for rural development builds upon the model established by the successful Action Plan for Jobs, which has seen the unemployment rate come down from 15.1% to 7.2% between 2012 and 2017. It takes a whole-of-government approach to the economic and social development of rural Ireland and acts as an overarching structure for the co-ordination and implementation of initiatives across Departments and other public bodies. The action plan was developed following a comprehensive consultation process with key rural stakeholders. In particular, a series of meetings was held with sectoral interests in rural areas, including farming and fishing organisations, Teagasc, Macra na Feirme, Údarás na Gaeltachta, the IDA, Enterprise Ireland, Chambers Ireland, the Western Development Commission, the Association of Irish Local Government, Irish Rural Link and Waterways Ireland. These meetings were supplemented by six structured workshops held across the country with representatives from local community groups, local government, rural stakeholder groups and relevant State bodies and agencies.

The Minister also sought input to the action plan from our colleagues in the Oireachtas with the holding of an information session for Members during which we issued an open invitation to submit proposals for inclusion in the plan. I should point out that a number of Members and their groupings availed of this opportunity, as did the members of the Joint Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, both collectively and individually. The Minister and I would like to put on record our thanks for the submissions provided, both by Oireachtas Members and those who took part in the wider consultation process. I can assure them that their points and observations were considered during the formulation of the plan and, ultimately, helped to improve it.

That is the basis of this whole plan. It is not that the Minister sat down at her desk one day and just decided to write it out. She has consulted widely with all the stakeholders and this is the plan they imagined, drew up and formulated. I and others have put forward a number of suggestions on some measures which, thankfully, were included in the plan. We want to communicate the aims and objectives of the plan as widely as possible. The Minister has already offered to meet the joint committee to discuss the plan further and she will also address Seanad Éireann on the plan in February.

Having launched and published the plan, our attention and that of the Department will now turn to monitoring its implementation. As the Deputy will appreciate, the implementation of such a comprehensive and wide-ranging action plan, encompassing more than 270 actions, will be challenging. The action plan sets out a clear roadmap for monitoring its implementation, a process which will be overseen in the first instance by a monitoring committee to be chaired by the Minister. The membership of the committee will be comprised of representatives from the relevant Departments and State agencies, as well as representatives from key rural stakeholders and experts in the area. The Deputy will see progress reports on the website, www.ruralireland.ie.

In addition, it was announced by the Minister at the launch that she will appoint Mr. Pat Spillane to act as the ambassador for the action plan for rural development. Mr. Spillane's brief will be to encourage businesses, communities, sporting organisations and other organisations to engage with the plan. He also played a key role in the report of the Commission for the Economic Development of Rural Areas, CEDRA. The Department was resourced with additional staff for the new section when the original rural section was brought into the Department in the reconfiguration, and those staff will have key role in the implementation.

With regard to the Supplementary Estimate for the action plan, I should point out the action plan is intended to run for three years. The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, the Minister of State, Deputy Ring, and I will work with our colleagues across the Government as part of the larger Estimates process to ensure there is significant investment in rural communities over this period. I note the rural development division of our Department has increased its funding by 29% when compared with the 2016 baseline, that is, from €61.2 million to €79.2 million. The action plan is the first whole-of-government approach to rural communities. It is my view that the role of all in the House is to ensure this multifaceted, cross-agency, cross-departmental plan is implemented and resourced. We look forward to the Deputy's support in regard to ensuring we get additional resources in the years ahead.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I have heard scripts but I have never heard one as poor as the one the Minister of State was asked to read out today. This is so sad. If I had time, I would go through the 276 actions. The action plan states, for example, that €1.2 billion per annum will be paid out in single farm payments. I will not say what I would like to say about that in the Houses of the Oireachtas. This €1.2 billion has been paid out for the past ten years because that is what the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, provides. The plan tells us that €4 billion will be spent on the CAP. First, the Government is not spending it and, second, that is an old commitment. The plan tells us the Government will spend €250 million on the Leader programme when it was €340 million the last time. It goes on and on. It is laughable. One of the great boasts is the Government will again roll out the RAPID programme, which it never should have stopped. However, we know this is primarily an urban programme, although provincial towns are involved.

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Tuam and Ballinasloe.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I agreed it includes provincial towns. However, given we have the reheating of some actions for towns, will the Government give us the plan for rural Ireland? Does the Minister of State realise there is one town in the whole of Connemara, which he represents, with a population of more than 1,500 people, namely, Clifden? Does he realise there are 980 towns in the country with a population of more than 1,500? The Government will not even be able to give €33,000 a year to more than two thirds of those towns. What of all the towns and villages in Connemara, with which the Minister of State is well familiar? One town might qualify. This is not a plan.

Will the Minister of State answer one straight question? The Government is going to implement this plan and the Minister of State tell us this is something new and above what was already in all the Estimates that were provided for when Members voted through the budget. Will he tell me how much of a Supplementary Estimate the Government will have to bring in this year to implement this plan? That is the acid test. If the answer is nil, it proves this plan is just an amalgam of reheated dinner, as I said at the beginning, and is a disgrace. If this is what the stakeholders want, the stakeholders are not serving the people. It is no excuse.

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Clearly, no single silver bullet is going to save rural Ireland.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Roads, water and sewerage might.

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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This plan is a cross-departmental plan that encompasses nearly all Departments and State agencies that have a role in rural Ireland. For example, the roads budget is separate and has been announced. The investment in sewerage, which was mentioned by the Deputy, comes from Irish Water where there has been underfunding for years. Broadband is being rolled out, as the Deputy knows-----

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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It is not.

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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It certainly was not rolled out in 2005, when I was on the council and saw lovely bright maps coming from the Deputy's Government.

Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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This is 12 years later.

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy knows, next June or July the signing will take place of a very complex contract of more than 2 million words that is future-proofed for future generations.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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It will not be.

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The capital plan for housing, which the Deputy welcomed yesterday-----

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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It is reheated dinner.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Order, please.

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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In the last two years, during bad economic times, up to 24 social houses were provided in Letterfrack. I know the Deputy turned the sod there two years ago, so obviously he would welcome that. It is a clear investment in rural Ireland. Roads funding comes from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and there is Enterprise Ireland funding. We have the IDA, the LEOs and the housing plan, and a range of other plans are coming from across various Departments.

Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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Déjà vu.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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There is nothing new.

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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No single thing will save rural Ireland. The Deputy talks about towns. Towns, villages and the rural hinterland are all interconnected, as they are connected to Galway city. We want to see all areas thriving. They are all working in conjunction-----

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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The Government wants to do away with one-off houses.

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Deputy's support to implement all the measures. As I said, we can work together to try to secure extra funding and I am sure the Deputy will be debating that at the Oireachtas committee. This is a very welcome initiative for rural Ireland. We will continue to fight to ensure it is implemented across every Department that has any role or does any work within rural Ireland. I hope Deputy Ó Cuív will join us in that battle.