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

It would be an understatement to say that all the diverse opinions and issues that were raised in this House this afternoon are a reflection of the challenge that I have in addressing the issues in rural areas. As Senator O'Neill said, I am largely responsible for everything outside Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway.

I understand how the difficulties we have suffered in recent years and the economic downturn has very adversely affected rural areas. I could choose to see the glass half-full or half-empty. As I am very passionate about rural areas and I feel that rural communities want to take part in the recovery, I choose to see the glass half-full. Rural areas need considerable TLC. I am not being naïve about this. I know that there were cuts and that is the reality of the situation in which we live. We need a mature debate about the expectation of services in rural areas. There must be a degree of reality about it. We can have nostalgia around rural areas, but we have to see the real thing as well.

I have a big challenge and I welcome all the Senators' very good contributions. It does not matter on what side of the political divide one stands provided there are positive developments for rural areas. Rural communities have huge potential. As I visit those communities I cannot impose a plan on them. As we have seen in recent months, if I came in heavy handed and presented a plan, the first thing people would tell me is that they did not want it and they would protest against it. So I have to work with the communities to get them to develop their own plan so that it is not my plan or that of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and certainly not a Dublin-based plan, but their own plan. Then they will hopefully deliver that plan.

Hopefully, they can deliver their own economic success through that plan and through the integrated approach the Government will take to put those services down into rural Ireland - all that support from the Government - and establish what can be delivered on the other side. As all Members are aware, the Government in itself cannot create jobs but it can create the environment for those jobs, which brings me on to a point mentioned by Senator Landy. It would have been a plus, had I been handed this brief three years ago, and making it a full Ministry the next time certainly would be advantageous. Had this been the case, I could have had a lot more time to engage with rural Ireland but I can only deal with the situation in which I am at present and I will be keeping my foot on the pedal for rural Ireland. I am now the advocate for rural Ireland, for which the clock started ticking when I became the responsible Minister of State four months ago. That is ground zero for me and as to what happens in rural Ireland, I can only begin to count from that point onwards. I cannot keep looking back but must consider the positives in this regard. Moreover, I cannot set up any new structures but must work within the existing ones, which pertain to the integration supports from the Government and the alignment process to which the Senator referred earlier. I have an excellent relationship with the Leader companies and I intend to see that continue into the future.

The development of the rural economic development, RED, zones is my priority because I believe that if there is sustainable job creation in rural Ireland, everything else will take care of itself. If one has sustainable jobs in rural Ireland, one will have the users for the post office network, the Garda stations and the local shops. I live my life by the motto "use it or lose it" but all the Government's efforts must be concentrated on particular areas in rural Ireland to ascertain what can be delivered on the other side. The Government is signing off on criteria regarding these RED zones as we speak and they will be decided independently. There will be independent criteria for them and that is how they will be decided. In some ways, this will be similar to the former CLÁR areas in that when a particular zone is decided on, the Government will be able to bring down all the supports available to it to establish how to harness the potential of these particular areas and to examine the job creation element. The Government is considering a number of these areas from the perspective of the potential that exists in the hinterland of some of these development zones. This is because when the Government seeks to do something, it will be important to have selected an area that has the potential to deliver jobs. The Government has not decided on the number of REDs yet but this will be done over the coming weeks. As for a targeted approach, we will undertake some case studies and establish what works and what will not work in some cases. I note there also are learning possibilities arising from what will not work and if mistakes are made, we will not repeat them in other areas. I envisage that the development of the RED zones will be adopted and I will work closely with the local authority structures, that is, with the local community development committees, LCDCs, because a bottom-up approach to the community is being adopted. The Government will get the LCDCs to identify their own rural economic development, RED, zones and see how they can take those plans. They then will have the capability of rolling them out throughout rural Ireland.

I must acknowledge that one of the biggest issues in rural Ireland is broadband. Everywhere I go and in each community I visit, the first question and issue to be raised is that of broadband. Consequently, I understand the difficulties people who are trying to set up businesses experience in rural areas and it all depends on the broadband capability. The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy White, has an extremely good and highly ambitious plan for the roll-out of broadband in rural Ireland. I can only work with that Department, which has a grand plan in this regard and I believe it will succeed. The Department for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources tells me that people will be very surprised by how ambitious that plan is. They are tasked with delivering broadband access that does not merely last for the next five to ten years. This is a highly technical subject but rural broadband must be delivered and there must be a network that lasts for 30 years at a minimum, for 50 years in the medium term and in many cases perhaps, even for 100 years. The aforementioned Department is working very hard on this monumental task, which also is a Government priority.

To revert to the urban areas, I do not wish to create a "them and us" situation. I do not seek to create a situation in which one shouts across at people in Dublin to claim they have everything, while people in rural Ireland have nothing. I wish to take what are the positives in Dublin and to try to deliver them in rural Ireland. There has been an ongoing recurring argument about how the IDA only looks to the very large urban areas and that this is where that agency will deliver the jobs. When broadband is delivered to rural Ireland, the IDA will have much greater flexibility in respect of the companies it can bring there and in some cases, some companies will come because of that rural setting. For example, I refer to the Walsh Whiskey Distillery in Bagenalstown, County Carlow. When that operation is up and running, more than 70 people will be working there full time with a further 25 people working part time. That distillery actively sought a rural setting and consequently, I believe it is up to us and we simply must keep trying much harder.

I also believe the situation in rural Ireland is particularly relevant when speaking about tourism and I will give consideration to a lot of tourism initiatives to deliver jobs to rural Ireland. I heard a presentation yesterday from people associated with the greenway in County Mayo on the number of jobs they could deliver there because of the greenway's establishment. Down across the Barrow and Nore valleys, we are seeking to develop a blueway that will deliver jobs for those communities along the River Barrow and tourism is a huge element to what I am doing.

In response to the issue raised in respect of the post offices, a committee has been set up on which I will sit, albeit not all the time but at intervals, at which will be represented the Irish Postmasters Union, IPU, and An Post and which will have an independent chair. The Minister, Deputy White, will also sit intermittently on that committee. Its purpose is to consider how a post office network can be delivered and what kind of post office network will exist in five or ten years' time. That committee will undertake some good work and will consider issues such as banking, why people engage in banking transactions and whether they can choose to use the post office. It will involve research and looking across all Departments to ascertain what kind of supports can be given to the post office network, under the constraints that exist, to establish how the Government can deliver and retain the post office network. Personally, I am very passionate about the network because I like to retain that face-to-face service, which has been in place in rural Ireland and which people really like and want. However, there is a responsibility on everyone to use the post office. If supports are given to An Post, people must continue to use the post office because that is the only way in which such offices will be kept open. The co-operative societies also are being studied as they offer a highly innovative way of creating jobs and keeping people in jobs. Senator O'Neill made reference to Glanbia, which as Members are aware began as part of the co-operative movement. Consequently, there also are good and exciting ways in which to examine those societies.

There are many varied challenges in respect of rural Ireland and trying to keep it alive.

Let us look at what happened to tourism during the Celtic tiger years. Ireland was not a place one went for value for money. During that period we did not really care about the tourism industry. That was the case for society as a whole, not necessarily the tourism agencies themselves. When the Government came to office in 2011 we realised that tourism was a vital part of the economy and we put the focus back again on tourism. It did not let us down and has delivered. I would like to think that is what will happen in the case of rural Ireland. We will put our foot back on the pedal again and get the Government to focus support in rural areas and as a result deliver on job creation. Post offices, local schools and other services will flow from job creation. We might have to look at services in a slightly different way but we must be mature about what we can expect.