Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday on the Order of Business, and indeed this morning, we heard about the €30 million of rural funding that was announced. I know the Leader was asked yesterday to have a debate on rural Ireland and this issue. The package that was announced by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, and the Minister of State, Deputy Ann Phelan, at the ploughing championships is going to run for six years from 2016. It is my understanding that it is designed to channel funds via local authorities, for example for renovating derelict buildings, regenerating vacant sites or upgrading street lighting. Further details are to be announced in the coming week.

The Taoiseach said he hoped the funding would address infrastructural blockages in rural Ireland. However, when we start talking about revitalising and regenerating rural Ireland, or eliminating the two-tier economy between urban and rural areas, we must also consider services. When the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government or indeed the Minister of State, Deputy Phelan, come to the House to discuss the funding and the broader issues around rural Ireland, I hope we will also address their proposals on the amalgamation of services. Proposals from the Department to amalgamate, for example, fire and library services have caused concern in some areas. Communities are understandably upset by the proposals, as they will undermine the ability of counties to protect their own local services. The Department is seeking to amalgamate these services in a number of areas, including Cavan and Monaghan.

Another report, "Managing the Delivery of Effective Library Services", recommends a unified management structure for the operation of these services only. There is grave concern about where this proposal will ultimately lead. When we start talking about more effective, leaner services, what strikes people is a reduction in finances and how the same services are to be provided when two counties have to start drawing from the same pool.

We have heard rhetoric on streamlined, more efficient services before and it is often translated into budget cuts, reduced hours, possible staff cuts and worse; it has resulted in some closures. We just need to look at Garda stations, post offices and banks for that. First come efficiencies, then come cuts and closures and, when a service is gone, we all know that it is gone. We have heard it all before; we have heard about efficiencies in our public services. It does equate to cutbacks and job losses. I do not think we can talk about rural funding and the funding that is going to be coming to local authorities without discussing these issues, which are central to rural Ireland and its communities.