Denis Landy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Some weeks ago, a seminar was held in the RDS organised by the Sparkasse institute in Germany and Irish Rural Link on the development of a public banking system in Ireland. It outlined how public banking would fit in with Ireland's existing financial services, the regions it would help revitalise and how it could support credit unions, post offices and the communities they serve. There was considerable expertise evident at the seminar and this expertise has been made available to the State to implement the Sparkasse or public savings banks concept. We have seen economic recovery, particularly on the east coast, but we have not seen it in areas such as the south east. One of the reasons for this is that organisations that previously provided funding to small and medium enterprises, SMEs, for example, building societies and banks when they were located on main streets, have ceased trading or have moved online. There is no one for people to meet and SMEs are being deprived of funding. As a result, rural areas are not recovering in they way they should.

The Sparkasse banks are based on a non-for-profit concept where lending is restricted to businesses in the regional economy. These banks would fill the gap left by the demise of building societies and provide a public banking system and suitable vehicle for credit unions to invest the €9 billion they have identified for lending to small and medium enterprises. They would provide credit unions with much-needed administrative support in meeting the increasingly burdensome Central Bank regulations they face. A presentation on this concept of public banking will be made in the audio-visual room next Wednesday. It is in all our interests to attend as it will be highly beneficial and I hope the Government will support it. The Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Heather Humphreys, is due before the House to discuss the revival plan for rural Ireland. The Sparkasse concept is referred to in action 259 of the plan. I ask the Leader to ensure the Minister addresses the possibility of establishing a working group to implement this concept.

I welcome the announcement on Monday by the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Shane Ross, of funding of €324 million for regional and local roads. Despite the efforts of some Senators, particularly on the Fianna Fáil side, the issue of local improvement schemes was brought to the attention of the Minister last year when a request was made to ring-fence funding to upgrade and make non-public roads safe for use. There are thousands of such roads in rural areas, for which no money is provided. Local government and local engineers have been told to take money from the allocation for public roads. It is not justified to take money from a small fund for public roads and reinvest it in culs-de-sac and private roads. A ring-fenced fund must be provided for this purpose.

I have been contacted by a number of county councils on this matter, most recently in a letter from my local council in County Tipperary, requesting that the Minister specifically allocate funding for this purpose. He has seen fit to invest money in ensuring adequate supplies of salt are available to tackle Japanese knotweed, which is welcome, but he has not provided funding for local improvement schemes. I ask that he come to the House to discuss the provision of funding for these schemes from the vast amount of money available to him annually.