Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire, an Teachta Phelan, anseo tráthnóna inniu. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Phelan, and congratulate her on her appointment and wish her well. I believe her role is very important for implementing the recommendations of the CEDRA report. I see it as an overarching responsibility across all Government Departments, as I am sure she does.

I attended the presentation in the Houses of the Oireachtas at which the chairman of the CEDRA group, Pat Spillane, was present. I agree that it is a good idea to have a report commissioned on what is required in rural Ireland. However, I read the report when it was published and it seemed to copperfasten all of the cuts which were made in rural Ireland to broadband provision, farming grants, RDP funding, Leader funding and all of those issues. The report identified all of the issues, but the cuts that were being made ran in correlation with them. That is not to make a political point on the issue.

To develop rural Ireland we, as a Government and as a Parliament, have to ask whether rural Ireland is important in terms of economy, way of life and as a place where we want to live, raise families and work. The answer is "Yes", but it is not simple to join all of that up. Taking my own county, County Donegal, as an example, 30% of people aged between 19 and 35 have left Donegal over the last three years and have emigrated because they were not able to get employment locally. Some of them went to Dublin and Galway, but the vast majority emigrated overseas and that is very sad. The same can be said of many parts of rural Ireland. While there is some economic revitalisation occurring in the country, the vast majority of that is here in Dublin. No-one would begrudge Dublin that. It is great from an overall economic point of view. However, the fact remains that rural Ireland is on its knees at the moment.

I believe it was a grave mistake on the Government's part not to have a Minister with full responsibility for rural affairs at the Cabinet table. I believe that the Minister of State, Deputy Phelan, should have been promoted to the Cabinet straight up because there is a need for every decision being made by every Government Department to be rural-proofed, whether that is the roll-out of broadband, sewerage schemes, funding for roads or whatever.

The commission for economic development could be beneficial for rural Ireland, or for an economist it could be very negative. The economist will carry out a blanket cost-benefit analysis of a road investment and say "No, there are not enough people living there." That is the way the Department of transport and the National Roads Authority operate. They carry out a cost-benefit analysis and the result hinges on where people live. Unfortunately, very often economic decisions are detrimental to rural Ireland. To give some examples of issues people have been raising, and I am sure the Minister of State is well aware of them: there have been over 140 Garda stations closed during the lifetime of this Government; the agricultural disadvantaged areas scheme has been cut; the school transport charges, while not seemingly significant, have had an impact; as has the ending in 2012 of the CLÁR programme to help rural areas top up road grants.

The availability of broadband in rural Ireland is pitiful from a European point of view. In Europe, broadband is available at every street corner and crossroads in most countries. We do not have that here. In parts of rural Ireland there is absolutely no broadband available. I blame the operators for that, but I would also blame the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. On a number of occasions in this House I have raised a matter where there was funding available under the last rural development programme for the provision of broadband to 12,500 rural properties which were not serviced. There was €13.5 million coming from Europe and €3.5 million from the Irish Government but the money was not drawn down. It went back to Europe. That was a disgrace and I ask the Minister of State to investigate why that happened. Was a Minister or an official responsible? Whoever was responsible for the decision, whether a civil servant, a public servant or a Minister, should hang their head in shame. Money that is available like that should not go back, it should be rolled out.

With e-learning and e-business, the opportunities to work from home have never been greater, but that cannot happen in rural Ireland. I cannot get broadband in my own house even though it is only 1.5 km from a village, and 90% of people in the parish where I live cannot obtain broadband. I do not think that is right. Eircom and all of the providers say it would be different if they had access to that money and I spoke to all of the providers who could have provided the service. If they had access to the money that was available, they would have provided the service and I have letters to prove it from the suppliers.

There are serious questions, and we have to learn. If anything is to come from this report, it needs to happen right at the top. Whichever Government is in power, there needs to be Government accountability that we are going to proof every decision. That proofing must take place from an economic point of view because the taxpayer needs to have economic accountability and to know that when money is spent it is spent well and not recklessly. We must also ensure that if there is money to be spent, a person living in a rural area should have the same access to State services as a person living in the city. Very often it is more economically viable for the private sector to provide services in a city or an urban setting anyway, so maybe the State should be focusing on the provision of services in rural areas to provide the same level of service right across the board.

I think the Minister will find it difficult to meet the challenge head-on. We could go across each Department and look at the distances people have to travel to get services, but we do not have time today. We could speak about the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, the Department of Health or any other Department. I will give an example. Last year, the Department of Health examined individuals who were applying for motorised transport grants. This relates to the disability allowance, for which the Department of Social Protection is responsible. I know that in three or four cases in County Donegal involving individuals in wheelchairs who needed to be assessed at different times, the Department wanted them to come to Dublin for their assessments. The departmental officials would not go to County Donegal because they did not have enough people to assess on the same day. It is absolutely crazy to ask an individual who is basically paralysed to come to Dublin for a medical assessment which should be carried out by the State in County Donegal. Things like this do not even cost money to repair. The State should have a joined-up policy across each Department of providing the same level of service to every citizen, regardless of where he or she lives. It is as simple as that. The Minister of State will have to contend with this challenge. I wish her well. She has my full support in her endeavours. I know she faces a challenging task.