Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House and wish him and his Department well in the job they are doing. I join Senator Feighan in thanking him for the funding that he made available to 116 agricultural shows around the country. One of those was in fact a show in my own parish of Inniscarra. It was very pleased to receive that funding, and it was important to it. A huge voluntary effort is made by people working in that area. Over a period of 30 years, sports facilities have been built up in the area in one block of 46 acres, including rugby, GAA, soccer and camogie pitches, a community centre and a pitch and putt course. These have all been made possible as a result of voluntary effort over the past 30 or 35 years, and they service a huge population in the immediate area. When those volunteers started 35 years ago, there was very little support at local authority or national level. The sports grants announced last week, together with the moneys announced for shows this week, are of benefit to all the organisations and the people working in them on a voluntary basis.

We are facing major challenges in rural Ireland in many ways, and we need to deal with those challenges. I am particularly concerned about elderly people living on their own who do not have sufficient public transport available to them. I find that the big challenge for older people is that many older couples have an income from their pensions of over €400 a week but find it difficult to live on that amount. If one of them dies, the money decreases to €250 a week, and it is a huge change and challenge for people. If public transport is not available to them, they can become very reliant on help and assistance from neighbours. It is important that we give support to voluntary groups that work in rural areas.

I recently spoke to someone whose work involves visiting farmers in rural areas. That person found that a large number of those farmers were elderly but were working and living on their own. We face a challenge regarding health care for these people. It is fine to say that we want more home help hours, and I believe firmly in that, but it is important to know whether we will have sufficient numbers of people to provide that level of care so that people can continue to live in their own local areas.

We are making much progress, but we need to make much more. In particular, we need to have progress on broadband. If rural areas have broadband access, more families will live and work and raise their families there without necessarily having to travel to the big city. We are now seeing a change occurring, where many people who work in the city or town two or three days a week are able to work from home on the other days. That is something that will develop and grow over the next number of years, but in order to do that, people need the necessary infrastructure, particularly broadband. It is one of the things we need to prioritise and push forward at a very fast pace. It is important that is given priority.

We face many challenges. We are making a lot of progress when it comes to facilities for people who are visiting this country. The evidence of that is the growth in numbers, despite the drop in the numbers coming from the UK. I presume that is tied into the devaluation of sterling. The figures announced last month show that there is an overall growth rate in the number of tourists still coming here, despite the drop in numbers from the UK. That is welcome, but in order to bring people in, we need to have the facilities and infrastructure, and we need to make sure that the people who are providing the support for the tourist industry are given the necessary commitment, both at local and national level. They need to know that we are on their side and want them to continue to improve and grow the services they are offering.

I thank the Minister and wish him well in his portfolio. I am sure, as my colleague has said, that he will not be take "No" for an answer when it comes to the areas he feels need to be prioritised in this very important Department.