Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Ring, to the House and I congratulate him on his appointment. I wish him and his officials well in the new Department, the establishment of which signals that Government is treating rural affairs as a top priority. There is no better man that the Minister, Deputy Ring, to lead this Department. He is passionate about, committed to and believes in rural Ireland. As Senators, we should support him in his endeavours.

It is important the funding streams are adequately resourced to support the Minister in his action plan and endeavours. As mentioned by him, the Leader programme and the social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP, are already supporting many rural communities. They have unlocked funding to enhance and support enterprise, tourism, agri-innovation and various other projects in communities throughout the country. It is important that we continue to exploit the potential of rural Ireland. Networks such as the GAA, Muintir na Tíre, the ICA, the IFA and voluntary community groups are committed to improving rural areas in a positive way and they need to be continuously supported.

The Minister already has a track record in this area in terms of his previous ministries in the sports and tourism areas and his role in regard to the development of the greenways in Westport and Achill. There is also a greenway in Waterford, for which I thank the Minister, Deputy Ring, and previous Ministers. Despite that the greenway has been open for only a few months it is already generating rural enterprise, thousands of tourists who previously never set foot in Waterford are now visiting the area and the many small enterprises located along that 50 km stretch. This is one example of an intervention made by this Government in supporting local authorities to generate rural enterprise. I have no doubt that the Minister will continue that action.

In regard to the action plan which the Minister proposes to develop and spear head, I will support him in that regard. However, there is one particular area that I believe needs attention. I welcome that the Minister will sit at Cabinet with colleagues who have responsibilities in this area, including rural community security. The Minister will be aware that there are a number of community groups throughout the country that operate text alert systems. While these groups have previously received some funding from the Department of Justice and Equality and by way of community grants from local authorities, these funding streams are being reduced because they do not form part of the core business of the Department and so on. Today, I am asking the Minister to consult with the Department of Justice and Equality and other Departments on the introduction of a long term funding mechanism to sustain these community groups. They will do the work, which they are passionate about, but they need support. There are three such schemes in Dunhill, Portlaw, and Ballyduff-Kilmeaden, which are in my area, and they are enormously successful. They work well with the Garda and they have secured the support of their rural communities. We need to support them on an ongoing basis. I ask that the Minister consider my proposal in the context of his action plan so that we can bring confidence back to rural areas in terms of security. We can support rural communities to work with the Garda but action in this area needs to be spear-headed by the Minister.

I wish the Minister well. He has my support, including in terms of the upcoming budget and his efforts to secure adequate funding for his brief. We can make whatever asks we want, if the funding is not made available we cannot move forward.