Edward Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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91. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the strategies he has to develop long-term employment in rural Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38307/25]

Edward Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Many people in Ireland commute to work and spend a long time in traffic. Many of these people's jobs are not conducive to working from home. This is a cost in terms of finance, time and family life. Rural employment must be supported. I welcome the successful roll-out of the national broadband plan, which is ahead of schedule and under budget. What strategies do the Minister and his Department have to deliver long-term employment in rural Ireland?

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Timmins for his question. Our Rural Future is the whole-of-government policy for sustainable rural development in Ireland. More than 170 measures are outlined to support sustainable economic and social development and environmental and cultural well-being across all our rural areas. The delivery of these measures is clearly based on a cross-governmental approach, with a range of Departments contributing to their own areas of responsibility.

Supporting employment and careers in rural areas by creating an environment that supports entrepreneurship and enterprise growth in rural areas is a key objective of that policy. In the main, enterprise policy and related commitments contained in Our Rural Future are the responsibility of my colleague, the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, Deputy Burke, working together with the relevant agencies under his remit. Significant progress continues to be made in this regard. For example, 64% of the new jobs created by Enterprise Ireland client companies last year were located outside the Dublin region, while 59% of Industrial Development Authority , IDA, investment was in the regional locations.

The role of the regional enterprise plans and local enterprise offices, LEOs, are crucial here also. In 2024, more than 7,000 new jobs were created by LEO supported companies, with 81% of these new jobs in businesses based outside of Dublin. Such interventions at local level, along with those at Údarás na Gaeltachta for muintir na Gaeltachta, are key to ensuring continued economic growth. I look forward to the development of the new round of regional enterprise plans next year.

Within my Department, the LEADER programme also focuses on supporting local economic development, helping to diversify the rural economy and create employment opportunities. Similarly, the delivery of the network of more than 380 connected hubs, supporting remote jobs in rural areas, and significant enhancements to our digital infrastructure, as the Deputy mentioned in his opening remarks, are helping to support rural enterprises and employment.

The programme for Government includes a commitment to publish and implement a new Our Rural Future policy, which will take effect from 2026. Public and stakeholder consultations are already well under way in respect of the new policy. They will continue throughout the summer. I hope to bring a final draft to the committee before the end of this calendar year.

Edward Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Employment brings life to rural Ireland and helps support our unique culture, including things like the GAA and many other traditions that are part of our culture and such a positive part of our society. In particular, can the Minister look at ways of supporting the economic development sections of our county councils? Some have significant resources but many, including my County Wicklow, have limited resources. We also need to be careful regarding the tourism sector and Airbnbs. Airbnbs bring tourists to parts of Ireland and parts of rural Wicklow that are not on the tourist map. In a recent poll carried out across the country, an average of 93% of Airbnb hosts cannot or will not release their property to long-term letting.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I cannot speak specifically to the Airbnb question. As I said, however, my Department has invested significantly in remote work and remote working facilities. We will be publishing a new national hub strategy, which will include measures to underpin ongoing sustainable development. As we discussed here previously, hubs in 2025 are different from what they were in 2020, and we need to make sure we keep up to date with them.

In terms of the local authority issue, local authorities and the enterprise units are centrally involved in the regional enterprise plans. I know from my former Ministry that there are regional enterprise plans that work extremely well because of proactive local authority involvement. I encourage every local authority to be proactive. I encourage every chief executive to ensure they have a well-resourced economic development unit and in particular that they have a well-resourced LEO. The local enterprise offices right across the country, which are based out of our local authorities, are superb at promoting rural enterprise, working with LEADER and other operations. A good LEO is invaluable to any local authority.

Edward Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Much of small-town Ireland has a shortage of housing yet no house building. House building would provide valuable employment. Currently, it is not viable to build houses as the cost to build exceeds the selling price. This is never mentioned in discussions on housing. However, it means that much of Ireland has no house building and yet there is a demand. We must look at strategies to allow house building in these areas through increased affordable housing, and reduce the cost of building a house, such as through the development levy waiver and other measures.

I also want to mention pubs, coffee shops and small businesses in rural Ireland. These small businesses provide valuable employment and bring life to our rural communities. We need to reduce their cost base as many are not financially viable and will continue to close, resulting in a loss to the community.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Absolutely, I agree. The cost base of every business is of concern to the Government. With regard to the small rural regionally based builders, we made it very clear that they need to be given support from the banking system to allow them to make the kinds of developments in rural areas the Deputy has spoken about and that we all want to see.

The Minister, Deputy Browne, will be writing to every local authority in the coming weeks to ask them to reopen their development plans to designate more land specifically for housing. That, in turn, will create opportunities for smaller builders. There is a skills challenge, and the Ministers, Deputies Lawless and Browne, are working to address that skills challenge in terms of apprenticeships to ensure we have the skills to support those regionally based builders to build those houses we need.

We are working closely with the hospitality sector but, as I said, the development of things such as 300-odd hubs keep people working in local villages and towns who otherwise would not be able to do so and who can use those facilities for lunch, coffee, etc.