Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will talk about some of the issues raised here, starting with Senator Paul Daly's comments on the amendments debated last night. The Taoiseach decided when forming the Government that the Department of the Gaeltacht would be included in Deputy Humphreys's Department, now the Department of culture, heritage and the Gaeltacht. Deputy Joe McHugh has been appointed as Minister of State in that Department and has his delegation order.

Deputy Ó Cuív made the argument last night that the Department of the Gaeltacht has its own budget and Department. I have no doubt but that it will in the future have, not one, but two Ministers at Cabinet. I am very pleased with that. As Senator Reilly has said, I will be working with all of the Ministers across the Departments. The Department of the Gaeltacht includes Údarás na Gaeltachta, and it has its own brief for bringing jobs and industry into Gaeltacht regions. I will work with the údarás, just as I will with Enterprise Ireland and the IDA.

This is a very short Bill. All we are seeking to do with this Bill is to set up the Department. I have to go away and work with my officials on getting my order from Government and establishing what responsibilities I have. We have 90% of the job done. I have no problem coming either into this House or into committees to discuss the issues that will come under my responsibility.

Senator Daly mentioned the important issue of Brexit. We already have cross-Border co-operation between Strabane, Donegal County Council and our own Department officials, who meet on a regular basis. The Government is taking Brexit very seriously. Nobody knows what effect it will have on rural Ireland. My job is to work with Government to make sure that it does not have a major negative effect.

Reference was made to roles in local improvement schemes, LIS, an issue which has also been raised by my parliamentary party colleagues for weeks now. I have already sent my officials into discussions on this matter with the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. I will be looking to set up such a scheme and I hope that the Department of transport will come up with some funding for it. I will also be looking for funding from Government. The Taoiseach is committed to having such a scheme. I want a scheme that will work and that will target people in rural Ireland, particularly when there is a home in question, or even two or three homes or whatever the case may be. This issue was raised last night in the parliamentary party. Fine Gael has been putting a lot of pressure on me for a long time about local improvement schemes. I hope to do something about this in the near future. It is something I am currently looking at and working on.

Senator Ó Clochartaigh discussed regional development. My brief includes responsibility for the regions. We did not want to specifically include this in the title of the Department because it would give the impression that I had responsibility for the regions and nothing else. I have responsibility for rural Ireland, including the regions along with every other section of the country. I will be working with the Western Development Commission, with Leader programmes and with all the relevant State agencies so as to ensure balanced regional development.

Senator Hopkins raised the important issue of jobs. Jobs is the key to all of this and the key to keeping young people and businesses in rural Ireland. Jobs, jobs, jobs. Senator Coffey raised the very valid point that we have to stop the negativity. There are people in this Department looking back 20 or 30 years. Now, however, we have a more modern rural Ireland. We have very good industries, high-tech jobs and highly-qualified people in rural Ireland. Of course we need broadband, as the Senator has raised, along with every other Senator and Teachta Dála in these Houses. I am working with the Minister for Communications, Climate Change and Environment as well as with the local authorities to make sure that on a day-to-day and minute-to-minute basis more and more homes will get high-speed broadband. We will not hear from the homes who get this broadband, of course, we will hear from those who do not. These are the homes that we have to deal with. It is all very fine for eir and the other commercial companies. They will target the high-population centres, of course, the big towns and villages. What they do not want to do, however, is go into rural Ireland. That is why we are putting a contract in place to make sure that every house, village and town in rural Ireland will have broadband. Since coming into this Ministry I have chaired two meetings on broadband. A lot of progress is being made. We have to be very careful with this and get it right. We do not want the situation around licences that we had before, which dragged through the courts for 15 years. This has to be done properly and legally. When the licence is finally awarded, we will make sure that the company in question is ready to roll it out. I have worked with and provided funding to the local authorities to ensure this.

I will be meeting some suppliers from the telecommunications industry to discuss the areas with very poor quality mobile coverage. We will meet to see if the rural communities themselves can come up with sites. Every Senator and Deputy knows that, while everybody wants a mobile phone service, nobody wants a mast beside their home. I am asking communities to assist us with this. The mobile companies are telling us that they will work with us on this if they can get the sites.

The action plan is a very important issue, perhaps the most important. My job is to go in and work with Government to get the necessary funding for rural Ireland. My second task is to make sure that every piece of legislation raised by every Department is rural-proofed. This goes back to my point about jobs. The IDA has done tremendous work on this and unemployment is down from approximately 15.5% to 6%. This can be very clearly seen in Galway and in certain towns around the country, but there are still many small towns that need a lift. We need initiatives to get the IDA and Enterprise Ireland to bring jobs into the regions.

Let us talk about my own town of Westport. We recently opened a new industrial unit, high-tech and complete with broadband. We thought that we might not get enough people to fill the centre but we actually ended up with twice that number. We have a huge amount of talent, a huge amount of young people, and jobs will be created over the next few years. We want to start building these kinds of facilities in every rural town that we can, places where we can bring young people in, provide them with a telephone line and broadband and give them a chance to get started. When these people start progressing and building up their own companies they will eventually move out of the units and we will be able to move somebody else in. It is working very well.

Let us consider the town and village renewal scheme, the rural recreation scheme and the Clár programme, which I recently reinstated. I will give the House some examples from my previous role in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. I remember one evening when the budget was announced - it was the Government in which Senator Reilly was a Minister - and we first heard about the Wild Atlantic Way. I heard a commentator on a certain radio programme making a joke that this was something that was thought up to give to Deputy Ring. It was in fact, because I had looked for something for rural Ireland. No Deputy, Senator or councillor can tell me now that there has ever been as simple an initiative that has done as much for tourism in rural Ireland.

Let us think of towns like Newport and Belmullet and of areas like Erris and Blacksod Bay. These places had seen very few visitors for years. The solution was very simple: a bit of funding; a bit of signage; and most importantly, overseas marketing. Sometimes people did not like it, but when I went abroad I mentioned the Wild Atlantic Way at every opportunity I got. The west of Ireland is now the second most popular destination for tourists coming to this country. I honestly believe this is because of the Wild Atlantic Way. Rural Ireland needs more initiatives like this one, simple ideas that will not cost big money.

It is not all about money, however. My Department is currently putting together a policy on social inclusion and social schemes. We have met a lot of groups who are working with communities and raising some funding themselves from their own industries. All they are looking for is some support from Government and that is what they are getting. The town and village renewal scheme, the rural recreation scheme and the Clár programme are all targeted schemes to help and support rural Ireland.These all are targeted schemes to help and support rural Ireland and I make no apology to anybody about funding for these schemes. I intend to go back to Government and try and get further funding. These are simple targeted schemes that are working well and we must get Government to come up with a few initiatives. That is my job and my role.

I thank the Senators, first of all, for their good wishes. I thank them for their contributions. We might disagree on issues but the one thing we do not disagree on is we need a strong, vibrant rural Ireland where we have people working, where we have families, where we can keep schools open and we can keep communities living.