Peter Cleere (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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20. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee that deals with rural affairs and community development will meet. [18744/25]

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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21. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee that deals with rural affairs and community development will next meet. [20901/25]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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22. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee that deals with rural affairs and community development will meet. [22479/25]

Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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23. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee that deals with rural affairs and community development will meet. [22486/25]

Martin Daly (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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24. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee that deals with rural affairs and community development will next meet. [22656/25]

Tony McCormack (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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25. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee that deals with rural affairs and community development will next meet. [22657/25]

Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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26. To ask the Taoiseach Cabinet committee that deals with rural affairs and community development will next meet. [22658/25]

Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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27. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee that deals with rural affairs and community development will next meet. [22659/25]

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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28. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee that deals with rural affairs and community development will next meet. [22660/25]

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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29. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee that deals with rural affairs and community development will meet. [25316/25]

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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30. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee that deals with rural affairs and community development will next meet. [25531/25]

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 20 to 30, inclusive, together.

The Government has established Cabinet committees across a range of policy areas: economy, trade and competitiveness; housing; infrastructure; climate action and energy; disability; health; EU and international affairs; justice, migration and social affairs; water quality; Northern Ireland; and children and education. Issues relating to rural affairs and community development can be discussed, as required, at any of these Cabinet committees, given their relevance to multiple policy areas. As with all policy areas, rural and community development issues are also regularly discussed at full Government meetings, and these are where all formal decisions are made.

The Government continues to invest heavily in rural communities, and support for rural Ireland is a priority across government. The Department of Rural and Community Development’s rural development investment programme is providing unprecedented funding for rural Ireland. In budget 2025, the Government committed a total of €472 million to the Department of Rural and Community Development, the largest allocation since its establishment. This is a clear demonstration of the Government’s continuing commitment to supporting and developing our rural towns, villages and communities right across the country. The range of schemes available support projects in communities all across rural Ireland in areas such as town regeneration, the development of community facilities and the enhancement of our outdoor recreation facilities.

The Government’s policy for sustainable rural development in Ireland is called Our Rural Future: Rural Development Policy 2021–2025. Our Rural Future has been in place for almost five years and has provided vital investment and supports, strengthened local economies and improved the lives of many people across rural Ireland. The scale of this investment ranges from projects with a value of up to €65,000 under schemes such as CLÁR to larger multi-million euro projects under the rural regeneration and development fund. The new programme for Government includes a commitment to publish and implement a new Our Rural Future policy from 2026.

Peter Cleere (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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It was a great weekend for my constituency. Both Carlow intermediate and Kilkenny senior camogie teams went on to win the Leinster finals, which was a massive achievement. I am very much involved with both counties and teams, so I wish all of them very well. Commiserations to the Taoiseach on Cork’s harrowing defeat, but I am sure they will bounce back.

Everyone has a right to feel safe in their own home, particularly in rural constituencies. I welcome the significant increase in gardaí on the beat on Dublin streets. I have noticed this myself. While it is very noticeable, we need to see this filter down to rural communities, towns and villages right around the country, including in places like Callan, Castlecomer, Graiguenamanagh, Thomastown and Bagenalstown. We need to see an increased Garda presence in rural towns and villages right around the country.

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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After that, I should commend the Louth ladies and the under-20s, who are through to the all-Ireland final. It was unfortunate that our minors could not do it in a really great game against Offaly.

Rural housing is a major issue. Last summer, we were told that the draft guidelines on one-off rural housing were with the Attorney General for legal review. Given that we will be considering reviews of all the development plans at the end of the year, it would make sense for us to deal with the issue, publish the guidelines and have a proper conversation here on what constitutes sustainable living in rural areas. We have to facilitate those from rural areas to live in them so that we can sustain the GAA clubs we have just spoken about and, even beyond those, schools and all the other necessities related to living in Ireland today.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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There is a chronic shortage of public health nurses in Tallaght and across the South Dublin County Council area. Babies are going without routine developmental checks, which are vital to spotting issues early and referral to appropriate services. Home-based catheterisation is another essential service that has been removed, forcing very ill patients to travel to clinics to access it. The HSE has said it is trying to recruit more public health nurses but there are not enough applicants to fill the vacancies. Once again, the housing crisis is at the root of the problem. Thousands of nurses emigrate every year because they cannot afford to rent and cannot access social or affordable housing. This is on top of the low pay and poor working conditions for nurses, also caused by understaffing and driving qualified nurses to leave the country. What action is the Taoiseach going to take to ensure we deal with the vacancies in public health nursing?

Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I fear Dublin’s urban and suburban villages are getting left behind. As I raised with the Taoiseach previously, out of 150 new gardaí in March, just four came to the K district. The vast majority went to the city centre. The K district is one of the busiest policing districts in the country. Our Dublin West villages are too small for the Town Centre First policy and too big for the town and village renewal scheme, which is funded by the rural regeneration and development fund, yet places like Castleknock and Blanchardstown have just as much of a sense of place as Balbriggan and Celbridge. They are just as deserving when it comes to tackling vacancy and dereliction and ensuring the vibrancy of our main streets, and just as worthy when it comes to promoting heritage assets. Can the Taoiseach advise me whether the programme for Government commitment to review these schemes will bring urban villages under the criteria for community-led regeneration and renewal?

Martin Daly (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the commendable year-on-year investment by the Government in rural towns and villages, both under the CLÁR scheme, as the Taoiseach pointed out, and the RRDF scheme. One of the challenges that remains is that we need to retain our people in our villages. Some 30 or 40 years ago, people were emigrating because of a lack of employment. Now young people want to come back to our villages to live in them but there is a problem with the inconsistency regarding planning and infrastructure such as wastewater treatment plants to allow small towns and villages to grow. I welcome the investment by Uisce Éireann in a new wastewater treatment plant in Ballygar, my town, but there are many small towns and villages that just cannot grow because they do not have serviced sites and because of an inconsistency among the authorities with regard to planning. In this regard, I specifically mention Roscommon–Galway.

Tony McCormack (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Like my fellow Deputies, I congratulate the Offaly minor football team on its great performance last night. Commiserations to Louth. It has had a fantastic year and it is not over yet. Best wishes to the team in the all-Ireland. There was a fantastic finish to the game and it was a fantastic game of football.

I thank the Taoiseach for his response. As he knows, many rural communities, particularly in counties such as Offaly, are ageing rapidly. This is no longer a distant trend but a reality now shaping local needs and priorities. We need to ensure that ageing in rural Ireland is matched with proper supports, accessible healthcare, rural transport, housing and community services that allow people to age with dignity and connection. I know we have made a lot of progress in these areas recently but I ask that the issue of rural ageing be placed firmly on the Cabinet committee agenda going forward.

Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I intend to raise the issue of development levies later tonight as a Topical Issue but wish to say now that, since the development levy waiver was taken away, many young people in my constituency, Galway East, feel like they are being scammed. I realise that sounds harsh, but what I mean is that a young person in east Galway today building a one-off home can pay the local council up to €5,000 or €10,000 between connection fees and development contributions. Understandably, people are happy to pay their electricity and water connections and they see the value in these, but when it comes to development contributions to the council, they are incredibly frustrated. The money goes into the abyss and in rural areas, we do not see lighting or footpaths. It is a major source of frustration. Maybe there is now time to restructure how the money is being spent or ensure it is ring-fenced within councils for allocation for local infrastructure. I would appreciate the Taoiseach’s thoughts on this.

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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Is iad na bóithre ceann de na deacrachtaí is mó do phobal na tuaithe, go háirithe an píosa bóthair ag deireadh an chórais. Is é sin an chéad phíosa den bhóthar a dtiomáineann siad air ar maidin agus an píosa ar deireadh. Tá sé fíorthábhachtach go mbeadh an t-airgead cuí á chur ar fáil do na bóithre sin.

One of the greatest frustrations in rural communities is the local road network, particularly the first stretches of road on which people drive in the morning and the very last ones on which they drive in the evening. The local improvement scheme is a very useful tool for funding and making improvements but it needs an additional push and to be properly resourced.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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Community development is also important in large suburbs and urban areas. As the Taoiseach knows, there has been massive development in Dublin West, in many cases without the necessary transport and schools.

We have large populations but now we have no transport links between many of the suburbs. Could the Taoiseach look into a situation? There are 11 families in Tyrrelstown who cannot get into their local school, Le Chéile Secondary School, so they all have to go to Ongar, which is 9 km away. They have been told they are not eligible for school transport because the school in Ongar is not their nearest school. Also, there is no bus route supplied at all in the area. I have written to Go-Ahead Ireland to see if it can extend a bus service it has and Bus Éireann has again rejected its application. What are these 11 parents meant to do? Fly to the school? Some of them are single-income households that do not have cars so they have been trying to organise carpooling for the last year. They are being pushed back by the State at every single turn. Many of them are extremely hard workers who came to this country 20 years ago. Surely they are entitled to school transport. I ask the Taoiseach to look into the situation.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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We have gone past our time on these questions, so I ask Deputy Cahill to be as quick as possible and the Taoiseach then to respond.

Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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There is a need to accelerate all of our regeneration schemes that have commenced and to expedite and accelerate town centre first schemes. They are a way of tackling dereliction. I would like to see the €100,000 over-shop grant introduced ASAP because it is another way of tackling dereliction and providing badly needed houses in rural towns and villages. There are two schemes ongoing in Kerry, the Killorglin and Cahersiveen regeneration schemes. I would like to see them accelerated. I refer also to the Kenmare and Castleisland town centre first schemes along with Dingle and others.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank all the Deputies who contributed.

I congratulate Deputy Cleere and join him in his comments on the camogie teams from Kilkenny and Carlow. I note his heartfelt concern about Cork's defeat on Sunday and the sincerity of how he expressed it. The season is young yet.

There is a theme all around the House of the need to deploy as many gardaí as possible in rural Ireland as well as the big cities. It would be fair to say the majority of redeployment of new gardaí went to Dublin initially over recent years. That has had a manifest impact. Now, as more and more gardaí come through Templemore, we need to see that they are redeployed and spread more evenly across the country. We have to be patient in terms of roll-out, but I take the point Deputy Cleere made about rural towns and villages.

Deputy Ó Murchú was not to be outdone in congratulating the Louth ladies. Louth and Offaly are doing exceptionally well these days. We often use "per capita" as a phrase. Per capita, the sporting prowess of both Louth and Offaly is fantastic.

The rural housing guidelines are important in terms of sustainable living and rural communities. I will ask the Minister for housing about where we are on that. I know he is working on it.

Deputy Paul Murphy raised the chronic shortage of public health nurses. He said our nurses are leaving the country and so on, but the bottom line is that 28,567 extra staff have been recruited into our health service since the beginning of 2020. That is a 24% increase over the last four and a half years. About 10,000 of them are nurses and midwives. According to the OECD, Ireland has the second highest number of practising nurses per capita of any country in the European Union. I acknowledge there is a specific issue as regards public health nursing. The HSE is working in terms of recruitment of public health nurses, who provide a vital link in terms of identification of issues particularly among newborns and children in their earliest months and years. That is particularly important. We should not forget that the bottom line is that we have recruited more nurses than anybody in Europe or within the OECD in recent times and continue to do so.

Deputy Currie raised the same issue Deputy Cleere raised in respect of garda numbers, but in her case she was referring to urban villages. Again, we need as even a spread as possible. I note Deputy Currie's reference to Castleknock and other locations. Perhaps she should talk to the Minister for public expenditure. He might be able to find something in his treasure trove to facilitate the local area. I have no doubt that with all of them working together, they can pull something out of the hat.

Deputy Martin Daly raised a very important point about development within rural towns and villages, particularly the planning issue. The planning commission will be established shortly, as per the new Act. Wastewater treatment plants are critical. I have discussed this with Irish Water. My understanding is that new protocols have been developed to facilitate agreements between Irish Water and local developers or builders such that if they are building a new housing scheme, they would have permission to build a wastewater treatment plant in accordance with specifications laid down by Irish Water while facilitating regular inspection of same. I think that would unlock the problem for many rural villages and towns. With the best will in the world, Irish Water will not get around to every rural village and town in Ireland, but this could unlock a lot of housing potential cumulatively across the country. We will continue to focus on that. The Minister for housing is working on this with Irish Water.

In response to Deputy McCormack, well done to the Offaly minor team. As regards rural communities, he raised a very good point about the issue of ageing in rural Ireland. There are lots of vulnerabilities and insecurity around ageing in rural Ireland and we need specific policies on that. I will talk to the Minister for rural development, Dara Calleary, about that. In fairness to the outgoing Government and the former Minister, Eamon Ryan, and others, the rural transport link has been a very significant advance and has not got the recognition, perhaps, that it deserves. I hear very good feedback and reports in terms of its impact on rural Ireland. That helps our older people as well - housing adaptation, security issues, neighbourhood watches and all that - but we have to give greater supports for ageing. It is a theme the Deputy should continue to press on, as should we collectively as a House.

As regards Galway East, I hear Deputy Dolan. I think he is not the first Deputy to have raised the development levy waiver in respect of one-off housing, in particular. I will talk to the Minister for housing about that. I agree that there should be greater ringfencing of some of the revenues from development levies to specific locations where, perhaps, a significant revenue generation occurs. It could be a housing estate or a new area at the edge of a town that does not have the footpaths or the lighting. There is merit in that proposal.

Aontaím le Deputy Ó Muineacháin go bhfuil sé an-tábhachtach ar fad níos mó airgid, infheistíochta agus áiseanna a chur ar fáil do na bóithríní beaga ar fud na tíre, go háirithe i dtosach an turais agus i ndeireadh an tráthnóna. Admhaím - beidh mé ag caint leis an Aire - gur cóir níos mó airgid a chur ar fáil do na local improvement schemes. They need a push but they need consistent resourcing as well. There is a significant amount of work to be done in respect of this issue. The local improvement scheme is a valuable scheme.

Deputy Coppinger raised the issue of community development in Dublin West and the links between the suburbs. I do not understand fully why the 11 families could not get into the local school. Was it just capacity?

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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Yes.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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One often wonders whether local solutions in terms of accommodation could have been resolved. I do not know but I will talk to the Minister for education about the school and what the issue is there. Is it school transport we are primarily talking about here?

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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Yes.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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They have been hit twice in that respect, both in not getting a place in the first place and then not getting transport.

I hear Deputy Cahill loud and clear in terms of the need to accelerate the regeneration schemes in a variety of villages in Kerry. I think he referred to Killorglin and Dingle, and there are many more. I want to say publicly that I note his recent correspondence to me as well. It was comprehensive and covered a range of initiatives in south Kerry in particular.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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That concludes Taoiseach's Questions. I think we will make a recommendation to the Business Committee to meet early on Tuesday mornings for all those who want to pool the weekend results and compliment their local teams.

It might save a bit of time during the debates.

Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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It does not work the same way.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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We could appoint Deputy Cleere as chairperson.