Maura Hopkins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Ring, to the House. I wish him continued success in his role. He continues to be a flag bearer for rural Ireland at Cabinet level. The importance of his role in supporting rural and regional development cannot be overestimated.

I always want to be constructive, but I have to take issue with a number of the points that were made by Senator Paul Daly. He said that we are decimating rural Ireland and that it is dying. He suggested that the budget for rural Ireland was much larger when Fianna Fáil was in government. I am not sure whether the Senator was involved in politics in 2008, 2009, 2010 or 2011 when our country was in the depths of despair after the Celtic tiger had gone bust and the IMF and the troika were here. I cannot understand the lack of a rational debate on the challenges we face in rural Ireland.