Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

Change is taking place and in my 30 years in rural Ireland I often find a discrepancy between claims about what rural people want and their actual requests. Rural people keep moving ahead of our wishes for the past. The best way to create a sustainable rural environment is to keep some of the good from the old world, but facilities for people are improving. Given a choice between the old hotel in the town and the posh new hotel, most people will choose the new hotel and it is great that we have the resources for this progress.

To address Senator Alan Kelly's point, I have done much work to try to use the rural transport scheme to provide a facility for hospital visits. This approach makes sense, and it is not only related to the HSE. In everything I do I encounter difficulties when I bring groups of people together to do something that makes good sense and should not require much convincing to get an agreement. However, people have an infinite ability to get lost in the small print. I believe in cutting a deal and getting on with the matter at hand. Once could argue forever and a day — voluntary groups can be as bad as statutory agencies in this regard — over small issues rather than seeing the big picture. Ireland must move on from this approach to life.

I met a very fine person recently with whom I worked on rural development years ago in Connemara. He recalled how in the early days we took a risk in starting projects, only some of which worked but at least we took the risk. His view is that nowadays, so much study is required, every possible obstruction is raised and there must be a dotting of the i's and a crossing of the t's to the point of frustration. We need to return to a more "can do" approach.

As politicians, we should focus on getting the job done. We should admit failure when it happens, but failure is not a reason to do nothing. I remember providing playgrounds in the RAPID areas, one or two of which were vandalised. Certain people in the media tried to create a story about this. My sharp answer was that the vandalism was a pity, but I did not regret the installation of the 43 playgrounds that were not vandalised. The two that were would be replaced and CCTV installed. I refused to quit just because two of the initiatives failed.