Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to address the House on my role as the Minister of State with responsibility for the implementation of the report of the Commission for the Economic Development of Rural Areas, more generally known as the CEDRA report. Coming from a rural community, I have a strong and personal interest in energising rural communities. I was very honoured and privileged to have been given the job four months ago of overseeing the implementation of this report. I also want to reiterate that rural communities have the Government's full commitment to doing all it can to support job creation and to developing vibrant, dynamic rural economies and communities.

The report, commissioned in September 2012 by the then Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Phil Hogan, and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Simon Coveney, was designed to provide the Government with the information necessary to support policy and policy implementation frameworks that will work for the economic development of rural communities.

Throughout 2013, the commission and its chair, Mr. Pat Spillane, worked tirelessly, travelling the length and breadth of Ireland to ensure anyone who wanted to contribute to this report was facilitated to do so. As part of its work, the commission sought and considered the views of the public and stakeholders, hosting general public meetings, town hall meetings and meetings with key stakeholders, leaders of the business community and key experts. In total, over 100 meetings were held and approximately 1,000 contributions were made to the commission. To my knowledge, it was one of the most substantial and active public consultation processes conducted in recent times. This extensive level of consultation gives me confidence that the strong messages in the report reflect the knowledge and experience of people who live and work in rural Ireland and have their support.

The report itself took a multisectorial approach and contains 34 recommendations designed to support the medium-term economic development of rural areas for the period to 2025. These cover actions to be taken on enterprise development, tourism, broadband, rural town stimuli, artisan foods and beverages, social enterprise, creative industry, availability of finance, capacity building and skills, regional roads, rural transport, water services, the marine sector and renewable energy.

I accept the report's finding that generally rural areas and small towns did not benefit to the same extent as larger towns from the Celtic tiger boom. The report showed rural areas were particularly affected by the deep economic crisis. They experienced an increase in unemployment of 192% between 2006 and 2011, compared to 114% in urban areas. Small towns also experienced a drop in population, a major fall-off in economic activity and high youth migration and emigration. The impact is still visible nationwide with closed shops, the steady flow of emigrants and the resulting impact on community and cultural life. Any Member from a rural area will know when driving to Dublin of the serious decline of many towns. Equally, there is very mixed evidence on the extent to which rural areas are experiencing any of the current uplift. Some towns are beginning to benefit from the bounce back but my personal experience is that this is not the reality felt by a great majority of rural areas.

Vibrant rural areas are essential to the national economy. They have real potential which is not being fully realised and they need specific support if they are to achieve this potential. CEDRA was clear that rural areas are not looking for a hand-out but they most definitely need a hand-up if they are to continue to contribute to and benefit from, to the maximum extent possible, national economic development and well-being. This report is not a whinge about the lack of facilities in rural areas. It is about realising and capturing the potential of rural towns and areas.

The CEDRA report is a multisectorial plan. Key to its successful implementation is the achievement of a more co-ordinated and integrated approach to the wide variety of issues raised and the delivery of the services necessary to energise rural communities. It is also vital all Departments and support agencies are fully aware of the needs of rural communities and, as far as possible, that agency plans are tailored to provide the necessary support and assistance.

On this latter message, since I came into office, I have been working to ensure that all new policies and strategies are being rural-proofed in a very meaningful way. I have already asked that this be done for the new policy statement on entrepreneurship and for the forthcoming planning and development Bill. I have also written to all Departments and agencies asking them to ensure the needs of rural areas are specifically and strategically considered when new policies or strategies are being considered. This is a timely request as all State bodies are currently developing their new three-year strategy statements for the period 2015 to 2017.

In addition, I have met and made my views known on this issue at meetings with ministerial colleagues and with officials from IDA Ireland, Enterprise lreland, Teagasc, Bord Bia, local authorities, the local enterprise offices, LEOs, and now the local community development committee, LCDC, structure as well. This element of my work will continue as further meetings and engagements are lined up.

On the second message, I believe that integrating different strands together, as suggested by the Commission for the Economic Development of Rural Areas, CEDRA, will give us an improved process. Therefore, I have now established and am chairing a high level inter-departmental group, IDG, which is tasked with implementing the CEDRA report. The CEDRA IDG includes all the main departmental actors and to date we have had two meetings, with the third scheduled for early December.

This group has already carried out an initial evaluation of each recommendation and has provided me with a detailed brief on what is being done. I have assigned lead responsibility for all actions and, following our last meeting in October, we are now finalising a multi-sectoral CEDRA work programme with specific actions and timelines up to the end of 2015. There is a strong reporting and developmental framework for the work of this interdepartmental group as I have to report back to Government, through the Cabinet committee on economic recovery and jobs, on the progress achieved by the end of this year.

A good example of the valuable co-operation and assistance which I am already receiving is demonstrated by the input on broadband which I have received through the good offices of my colleague, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Alex White. Delivering high speed, high quality broadband is one of the important CEDRA recommendations and access to a fast and reliable service is a basic requirement for rural development. It has the equivalent importance as the rural electricity scheme in the 1950s and 1960s and the change that made in rural Ireland. The roll-out of broadband will have the same effect as the roll out of electricity in rural areas.

I am very pleased to see that practical and time-bound actions are now being taken to deliver on one of this Government's priorities for the period 2014 to 2016, namely, to provide a State-led broadband investment package for rural areas under the national broadband plan. Work is already under way on this project to identify and map the areas to be covered. Next week, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy White, will publish, for public consultation, an interactive map showing the areas of the country that by the end of 2016 will have access to high speed broadband through commercial investments as well as those parts which will require State intervention to ensure availability of such a service. This will be complemented by a series of public events to alert rural communities to the plans. By next summer the comprehensive strategy with timelines will be published and issued for public consultation and it is expected that the procurement process will be well under way by the end of next year.

This investment is essential if rural communities are to survive and thrive. In this day and age, broadband is no longer a "nice-to-have" service but is instead a critical piece of infrastructure for the economic development of rural areas. A quality and robust service is absolutely essential if these areas are not to lag even further behind. For that reason, one of my priorities was to get a comprehensive brief on developments in this area. I was very glad to see the developments being planned by this Government and I will continue to actively monitor this area as part of the CEDRA implementation process.

Another CEDRA issue on which progress has been made is illustrated by the rural transport programme. I have experienced at first hand how this programme has succeeded in developing services used by rural communities to gain better access to medical and educational services and to help combat rural isolation and loneliness. The number of services and routes has increased from 40,000 in 2003 to 224,000 in 2013 while the number of passengers has risen from 151,000 to 1.7 million over the same period of time. These provide a valuable lifeline for rural areas and the alignment of these services to provide better access to employment, education and health services is critical for rural areas. The types of integrated and coordinated action which CEDRA recommends is an example of this rural transport system. The rural transport programme is undergoing a restructuring process which is designed to deliver administrative efficiencies and a new role for local authorities in addressing transport needs.

I also welcome the fact that the National Transport Authority has introduced a licensing scheme for rural hackney services which is designed to allow new localised services to be introduced where there is an identified lack of availability of such services. I am confident that these initiatives will provide a solid foundation on which we can continue to build improved transport services in rural areas.

Another area of relevance is social enterprise. This is a broad work area covering many enterprises. These areas are primarily distinguished by the fact that any income generated is generally reinvested in the social enterprise itself, which is the social objective. One such area is social farming where people from disadvantaged groups are invited to participate in the activities of a working farm. It provides a novel social support service to improve health and also support farm diversification. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Coveney, and the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, and I have been working with the social farming across borders project to publicise these initiatives which provide opportunities for inclusion and reconnection between farmers, their community and disadvantaged groups. It also plays a major role in increasing self-esteem and improving health and well-being. It links up the Department of Heath and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and our intention is that it will also feed into the corporate social sustainability element of Origin Green. We are jointly launching the social farming guidelines booklet on 26 November. This is the type of cross-government, integrated thinking which is recommended by the CEDRA report and I am very anxious that I promote this.

Besides coordinating the implementation of the multi-sectoral CEDRA programme, I am in the process of identifying a few priority areas which I hope to pursue to energise rural areas and to show by best practice examples what can be achieved when communities and State enterprise agencies work together in a co-ordinated approach. I have asked a sub-group of the CEDRA IDG to develop, from within their combined resources, a number of proposals with clear, implementable actions which will assist the economic development of rural towns and their hinterlands. To help stimulate these proposals, I have been able to secure an allocation of €1 million in the 2015 budget for the establishment of a rural innovation and development fund to support innovative and small scale pilot initiatives under the CEDRA report. My intention is to pilot a small number of initiatives so as to assess their viability and effectiveness in creating employment in rural areas in the short to medium term.

Work on these proposals is progressing well and my expectations are that well-advanced proposals will be brought to the next CEDRA meeting in December.

This funding is only part of a wider comprehensive framework to support economic development in rural areas. These include major elements of the draft rural development programme, the seafood development investment programme and the wider enterprise, capability and community development initiatives operated by other bodies such as the local enterprise offices, Leader, local development companies, educational training boards and tourism agencies.

My role, under CEDRA, is to capitalise on these resources and to achieve a more coordinated and integrated approach to energising and developing rural areas. I feel that in the short time I have been in office I have made some progress. I have shown a clear commitment and statement of intent to progress the CEDRA report and I intend to continue to actively do all I can to energise rural areas.

Now is the time to look forward and prepare to support rural communities to avail of the many and varied opportunities that I am confident are coming down the line. Ireland is beginning to turn a corner and it is incumbent on us to work together with the people of Ireland to provide the support they feel is necessary in order to maintain and develop vibrant communities that have always formed the heart of Irish society particularly in rural Ireland. This is a Government priority. Now that the economy is beginning to recover we must make sure that economic recovery is felt in parts of rural Ireland, and that is my role in the whole CEDRA process.