Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. As a fellow rural dweller, she will be very much aware of the struggles of rural Ireland, which I would regard as being in dire straits. I note that in her speech, she said that this plan would enable rural Ireland to further grow and thrive but in order to allow something to further grow and thrive, it needs to already have grown and rural Ireland is in a regressive state at the moment. There is no growth. Indeed, there is decline. We are starting in the wrong position if we talk about further growing rural Ireland. We need remedial action.

This action plan is another false dawn for rural Ireland and rehashes existing announcements, programmes and employment forecasts. It is the fourth rural plan in 33 months from Fine Gael in power following the CEDRA report in April 2014, the Charter for Rural Ireland in January 2016 and the programme for Government in May 2016. The first page of the plan dealing with key deliverables is a lovely graphic page. It talks about 135,000 new jobs, which are already in the action plan for jobs. The 12% increase in overseas visitors is already part of the tourism strategy. The figure of over €51 million for sports, recreational and cultural facilities is part of the sports capital programme. The announcement of €12 million to revitalise over 600 towns and villages is to be welcomed but it does not refer to the 1.7 million people who live in what are known as aggregated rural areas, namely, outside aggregated town areas. This is the heart of rural Ireland and is most affected by problems. In many people's minds, rural Ireland is outside the M50 and rightly so but the real rural Irish people are those living in parishes. There is not one mention of the parish in a very comprehensive rural development plan. The nearest thing to a positive effort is in towns and villages, which is to be welcomed.The plan totally ignores the heart of rural Ireland.

The next key deliverable is to protect vital local services. Protecting what already exists is not sufficient. We need to replace many of the local services that have been closed down and done away with during the term of the last Government. We need a rejuvenation process instead of a protection programme.

The next key deliverable is to ensure all homes and businesses are connected to broadband. More than 900,000 rural households and businesses must wait until 2023 for State intervention to receive moderate speed broadband. That is six years passed the promised deadline, which is not good enough. Rural Ireland will not prosper or grow if it has to wait so long for a proper broadband service.

Flood relief has been included in this fabulous new document but it was already committed to in the capital plan. One of the plan's targets is to support 4,000 new community projects but no extra funding has been provided for the rural development plan and Leader programmes.

IDA Ireland is the Government agency charged with bringing industry to this country. The fact that as many as 50% of all IDA Ireland's site visits take place in the greater Dublin area, which is not 50% of the land area or 50% of the populated area of the country, is one of the major death knells for rural Ireland. That fact shows we have turned our backs on rural Ireland and it is one of the reasons rural Ireland has suffered.

This plan reveals a systematic rural policy failure by Fine Gael. There is no long-term vision or planning. The ultimate litmus test will be what additional funding, if any, will be ring-fenced for this plan. The Minister must immediately update the Oireachtas on whether she will introduce a Supplementary Estimate for 2017 in this regard. As I said previously, most of the bells and whistles associated with this plan that were supposed to cajole and reassure the people of rural Ireland have already been committed to. There is nothing new in the plan to reassure people who live in rural Ireland and know what problems exist from their daily life experiences. There is nothing in this plan that will reassure them that rural Ireland will improve.

The cornerstone of rural Ireland is, and always has been, the family farm. We are all aware that while it may not be directly under the remit of the Minister, the agriculture sector is experiencing a major crisis. When the rural family farm is under stress and is unprofitable then rural Ireland will have problems. If the farmers and the farming community can make money and earn a proper profit margin on their produce, then they will spend it locally. That will help to revitalise, rejuvenate and rebuild rural Ireland.

I will outline another major problem. A directive must be issued by the Department, Ministers and the Government to the local authorities in rural Ireland in respect of planning permissions. Each county has a county development plan that county planners are bound to implement. The Government can issue a directive to influence the formation of county development plans. It is as hard now, or it is harder than it ever was, to secure planning permission in rural Ireland. I do not know how a plan or a proposed strategy to develop and enhance rural Ireland can succeed if barriers are imposed and people are refused permission to live in rural Ireland. It is an enormous contradiction. Central government needs to bring in the local authorities if we have a real ambition to foster and promote rural Ireland. We must sit down with the local authorities and give them guidelines to loosen up their stringent planning laws that act as the greatest deterrent to the recovery of rural Ireland.

I could cover many more aspects of the plan, which I do not welcome. We have been there and done that in terms of the vast majority of the plan. The local authorities are the first line of defence for, or promotion of, our rural areas. These situations must be assessed on a case-by-case basis.