Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I am delighted to have her in the House. It was great to hear about the enthusiasm with which she has grabbed hold of this challenge. She said earlier that "rural areas are not looking for a hand-out but they most definitely need a hand-up". We need to hear those sorts of words. Before I was elected to this House, I was a member of a partnership in a small town, the aim of which was to bring business and life back into that town. I remember going to a meeting of the partnership and being disappointed that everybody else seemed to be thinking we should ask Dublin to send a State agency down to do things for us. I said "No" and pointed out that we needed somebody to clean the windows of our supermarket. I remember that a young man set up a business with a bicycle, a bucket and a ladder. There was no charge for the water. He succeeded and sold that business on. The person who had been cleaning the windows was coming from outside the town. When I said we could do with fresh vegetables, somebody else set up a little lettuce plant in his back garden. If we telephoned him from our supermarket at 4 p.m. to say we were running short of lettuce, he would bring some lettuce down to us. I mention this because there seems to be a danger that people think the best thing to do is call on the State to do something for them, whereas the important element of what we are doing is to give people a hand so that they can do these things for themselves.

I certainly welcome the report. I am glad it calls for a support pathway to help rural businesses and small-scale food producers. While I do not want to repeat what is outlined in the report, I will mention a couple of other ideas contained in it. The report calls for a target stimulus programme to help rural towns get back on their feet. I have been involved in such initiatives in a number of towns, one of which is Drogheda. When I did a television series in Drogheda, it was interesting that someone from outside the town could ask whether those involved in many things had ever thought of approaching them in a certain way.

The different traders were not talking to one another. Drogheda is a large town and not a rural one.
What we really need to do in rural town centres is to look at a different way of doing things. We should aim to set the conditions so that our rural towns are home to small, vibrant and original retailers. To do this, there should be some incentives for small retailers to set up shops in Dublin, for instance. Walking around the streets of Vienna, it was amazing to see tiny restaurants seating ten people, specialty record shops and shop windows displaying handmade furniture. The Austrians set a low rent and a fixed rate in order for these small and unique businesses to survive. If they paid normal rates, they would not be viable.
In France, rural towns are known as places where one can find an amazing selection of butchers, bakers and fishmongers. Some towns and villages in Ireland are thriving because they have indigenous retailers rather than the chains from the big cities. If our rural towns were able to be home to such a diversity of shops, I think they would attract more people. Customers are now very attracted to this type of aspirational shopping and we need specialty retailers to fill the gaps in the market. Indeed, it could be argued that centuries ago, our rural towns had a mixture of workshops, craftsmen and merchants and we should get back to this concept. In some towns, one sees shops which are owned by families and which are not part of a chain. The report's recommendation that incentives should be given to retailers to occupy vacant properties could really play a part.
To stimulate footfall in our rural towns, we really need to tackle parking charges. We have a massive problem of customers being put off shopping in towns due to over-vigorous traffic wardens and clampers. I went to Edenderry in County Offaly with a television show and it was just so sad to see the big supermarkets on the outside of town with the centre of the town devastated. Senator Landy coaxed me to Carrick-on-Suir some time ago and one could see that the people there were getting together to do something. We should allow people one hour free parking to get them into the towns to shop using disc parking. In Belgium, most towns and cities have a blue zone in the city centres which gives people a maximum of two hours free parking. People carry a simple parking disc in their cars on which they can display what time they parked their cars. It allows the traffic warden to see clearly how long one has been parked. A culture change like this would increase everybody's confidence and would encourage people back to towns and villages. This is a very sensible and straightforward solution, which could simplify and stimulate business and bring some life back to our rural towns.
I will give another example, which I call rural tourism, or agritourism. It is called agriturismoin Italy. The report points to opportunities for rural tourism in many parts of the country as it is under-exploited. It also states that this area is particularly suited to local authorities, which have more development responsibility now. I would like to give one concrete example, the model of agriturismo,which has worked so well in Italy. It is the basic idea of a small farm offering accommodation and a unique experience to tourists. When I was around 19 years of age, I was involved with Comhar Taisteal, a co-operative travel group which did a deal with CIE to get people down to west Cork. The train would take people to the nearest station and the farmer would meet them with his horse and cart and take them to the farm where they would stay. For city dwellers, it was a joy to see how country people worked and lived. This could be done with a small cheese-making farm with a few beds and tourists willing to pay a premium for the experience.
What they found in Italy was that this sort of rural tourism was extremely lucrative. These types of tourists are willing to pay three or four times more for this sort of different or authentic experience. Just imagine the potential for rural Ireland. These agriturismo farms get support at the national and EU levels. We should examine this model in Ireland and perhaps the agriturismoidea from Italy might fit in well with this if it was done in a rural area.
There are so many farms here which could offer the authentic Irish farm experience, where tourist could enjoy something different and even help out on the farm. If that was done successfully in one part of the country, it could provide a national model. Consider the Dutch and the German tourists, who would love to see this type of Ireland. What about all the American tourists who do not want to stay in a regular chain hotel? We have nothing similar to the Italian agriturismohere and the Minister of State could look closely at that model. Would there be funds available to help people along the line?
The other idea I have is that it is worth looking at countries like New Zealand. New Zealand has been very successful in developing and marketing its food products worldwide. We must look at the continuing growth of the agrifood sector in the context of the growing demand from regions such as Asia. We must listen to the customer and adapt our agricultural produce to that demand. The New Zealand dairy company Fonterra makes products specifically for the Chinese market and to cater for the particular customer tastes there. The Minister has just come back from China and I am sure we are moving in that direction but why are companies in Ireland not adopting this approach, innovating and developing similar products to the same degree as New Zealand? I do not think we are tailoring our products. To really compete abroad, we need to do more of this.
As dairy consumption goes through the roof, Fonterra is establishing dairy farms in China. I understand that Irish producers have to import milk to keep up with the demand for products like infant formula in China. Our dairy products are the best in the world but we seem to be lagging behind in exploiting some of these markets. They are just some of the ideas.
Over the past couple of years, I had the opportunity to travel around the country with televisions programmes and it has been a joy to see the success stories but it has been sad to see those who have not succeeded so let us manage to give them a hand up. I loved what the Minister of State said that they do not want a hand out but need a hand up and I think she is the very person who will give them that hand up.