Francis O'Brien (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Ó Cuív, and congratulate him on the wonderful work he has done and is doing in the CLÁR programme. I trust the Leas-Chathaoirleach will be somewhat courteous on the issue of time when I get to the end of my speech. This crossfire in the Chamber reminds me of local authority politics at its best. It is not appropriate to Seanad Éireann, as the Upper House of the Oireachtas.

The funds under the Minister's stewardship are distributed strictly on a population basis, so I cannot understand the thrust of the debate up to now. It was in his capacity as Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development that Deputy Ó Cuív launched the CLÁR programme. CLÁR is a programme that set out to tackle the problems of depopulation, decline and lack of services in rural areas. The 16 areas covered by the programme included parts of the counties of Connacht-Ulster and parts of the five counties of Munster as well as parts of the four counties of Leinster. The areas selected were those which had suffered the greatest depopulation since independence, with the exception of the Cooley peninsula, which was included because of serious difficulties caused by foot and mouth disease. On average these areas had lost 50% of their populations over 75 years to 2001. In some communities in Leitrim the decline was much greater.

In a determined bid to end this continued decline of rural communities, the CLÁR programme has been fast-tracking national development plan spending in selected areas. When launching the programme, the Minister identified the lack of population as the biggest single problem and the main excuse for the non-provision of services in rural areas. He highlighted how this had become a vicious circle — a declining population leads to the withdrawal of services and lack of services means that more people migrate to the cities which, in turn, means that even more services are lost to rural areas. The Minister saw it as his responsibility to end that vicious circle. As Minister he took the view that the lack of population should be a priority reason for getting investment rather than an excuse for not getting it. He quite rightly set out to turn received wisdom on its head as he argued that a declining area that has suffered the classic symptoms of rural decline should now go to the top of the list. The Minister deserves our congratulations. Fresh thinking and willingness to change were essential, and the Minister was not found wanting. Since 2001, the commitments of the Government to rural areas have been reinforced by the establishment of the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, with Deputy Ó Cuív as Minister. Nothing better illustrates the Government's commitment to rural concerns.

The Minister may not have grown up in rural areas, but throughout his entire adult life he has manifested an interest in them, and a vocation for them. He has brought great zeal to his interests. No doubt his own heritage and lineage contributed greatly. The Minister has always seemed to be very conscious of our unique tradition and culture. Many of his Department's announcements are modest, yet can have a real and positive impact on people's lives because of the standards of some of his grandiose projects of recent years, whether it be a fantastic new motorway or a striking railway bridge. My county, Monaghan, has benefited through improvements to class three non-national roads. Works such as these may not capture the headlines, but are quietly effective.

CLÁR has put the issue of population decline and its terrible consequences on the political map. If this were its only contribution, it would have been worthwhile, but it has done much more. It has provided hope where it was absent, remembered the forgotten and reached out to those beginning to despair of ever getting the most elementary infrastructure. CLÁR has complemented the RAPID programme in urban areas, as the remit of the Minister's Department extended to both programmes. The problems of excessive growth in our cities and the decline in our rural areas, with its detrimental effect on the quality of life, have been given top priority by the Government. The CLÁR initiative is part of a comprehensive series of measures focusing on quality of life issues in rural and urban areas. I welcome in particular the grants provided by the Minister for schools in the CLÁR area in recent weeks. I commend the CLÁR programme and the Minister's stewardship of it.