Ray Butler (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I also express my condolences to the Iranian people following the earthquake. There were heart-wrenching pictures in a newspaper of a mother holding in her arms her baby daughter who had been killed in the earthquake.The census figures for 2016 which were released last week showed how small towns had been hardest hit by the recession in the past ten years, while Dublin had been the least affected. The data show, too, that the capital has benefited disproportionately from the upturn in the economy, while small rural towns have felt the worst effects of the recession in the years since it ended. I refer, in particular, to the retail sector in rural towns. My local newspaper, the Meath Chronicle, reports that there are 95 vacant units in Navan town which has a population of 30,000 people. The reasons for this pressure on retailers include paid parking, an out-of-town shopping centre and the new show in town, rates revaluations. In other counties the majority of small businesses have seen an increase in rates of 16%. These are the people to whom we should have given a medal for staying open during the recession. In many cases, they did not pay themselves a wage in an effort to keep their businesses going, but they are being submitted to these revaluations. If more small shops are lost in rural locations, we will have no communities. We know what has happened in the United Kingdom, where people have to travel several kilometres to purchase the basics such as milk and sugar. The civil servants in Dublin must be told that we need a plan of action for rural Ireland. Will the Minister for Rural and Community Development come to the House and put forward his ideas for action in that regard? When we see a town like Navan in which there are 95 retail units vacant, we can only wonder what the situation is in smaller towns in more rural areas. The Minister must tell us what plan of action he proposes to implement to assist the retail sector in rural areas.