Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Humphreys. I know she has the drive to realise the objectives of the Action Plan for Rural Development and oversee the various targets. This is the antidote to the two-tier economy arising from the massive growth of jobs in the cities and the consequent pressure on housing, schools and infrastructure. In rural Ireland we have empty houses and dilapidated rural towns and villages. As we are all on the one island, the solution to the problem in rural Ireland is to support opportunities.

This is about looking and addressing challenges and making recovery a reality in rural Ireland. As wonderful as it is to live in a rural area, people cannot live on fresh air. The migration to jobs in bigger cities is not unique to Ireland. We see the development of super-cities and super-states in which people leave the land because it cannot sustain them.That puts pressure on the big urban centres. We have an opportunity in Ireland to try to get a model that works. We can make a template for other parts of the world. I have a number of specific points to make. I welcome the proposal that the Minister will issue grant aid to towns and villages to restore empty shops and houses to residential status so people can live in them. This is something I have advocated for over the past number of years. I look forward to seeing the pilot project rolled out as quickly as possible. I have already suggested the town of Swinford in my county to the Minister, where studies have been done by a couple of universities and the Border Midland and Western Regional Assembly as groundwork to show how it can be done and to develop a template. We have to face the reality. That is in the context of the new national planning framework which is being developed. How will we recognise revitalisation? We will not see the same number of shops, pubs and cafes in these towns again but we will need residential accommodation. The measure of success in towns and villages should not be having an FDI company. A lot of pressure is put on towns and villages because the measure of success is often the presence of a multinational. That will not happen everywhere. It has to be very nuanced and that is why there are so many strands to this plan. Working in conjunction with the action plan for jobs it has to be driven on.

There is a strong case for CLÁR to be extended. I welcome CLÁR and the projects being funded under it in County Mayo and a number of other counties but it is excluded from towns such as Ballina, Castlebar and Westport. All one has to do is look at the statistics on migration. There are three counties in this country which the last census shows have lost population - Mayo, Sligo and Donegal. CLÁR is particularly targeted at areas that are losing population and where there is disadvantage. These towns cannot be taken from the rural landscape they are situated in. The idea that they are somehow doing fine or better or that they are not disadvantaged is wrong; they are suffering very similar problems. We must take a holistic approach and consider this population decline. It is highly educated young people that are gone. This investment is needed to attract our young people back where there are jobs. My request to the Minister is that she looks at extending it because there is valuable funding there and it would make a big difference in terms of investment and enhancement of those particular towns and the outlying areas.

Senator Hopkins raised the issue of investment in roads and it is in the plan. The reality is we had a massive roads programme with billions of euro being spent for years up until the crash. That has resulted in the construction of major inter-urban routes to most cities. If one draws a line from Galway to County Louth, there are no major inter-urban routes along it. I understand my time is nearly up. There has been a problem with money but the connectivity is needed there more than ever because these are disadvantaged regions. It should be reflected in Government allocation of funding if there is to be a real solution and a real result for these areas. We have to have roads and we have to have proper public transport.

I will comment on the Leader programme. I have been very much involved in it and I have seen the benefits on the ground in my area. There have been a lot of disparaging remarks made here about Leader. The reality is that the last time many Leader companies did not get to spend their money which resulted in the former Minister, Phil Hogan, having to redistribute and assess it. The second thing is when the new CAP was renegotiated and there was a reduction in Leader, the Minister, Deputy Coveney, said that if they could spend the money they had they could come back and make a case for more. There is a lot of good work done by Leader but several Leader companies went out of business. They went to the wall and several of them were under investigation. I do not necessarily want to go into that but there were problems with Leader and anybody saying otherwise is not being honest. Let people bring the projects forward and let them spend their money. Is that not the way to go?

I have two requests on that side - the roads and the CLÁR programme and to press on with flood management and defences because where towns have been flooded, one cannot run or sell one's business or house.