Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Over two months have passed since the launch of Project Ireland 2040. We should be dealing with legislation to give effect to its provisions instead of making more statements in which we point to the very obvious. People living in rural Ireland are suffering from announcement fatigue. We receive updates every couple of weeks on the roll-out of plans such as the national broadband plan.The tone of these announcements, however, is completely at odds with the reality on the ground. I have seen little or no change in the Government's attitude towards rural development. Project Ireland 2040 was offered as a panacea, a one-stop-shop to address years of neglect. In my area of Inishowen, situated on the Wild Atlantic Way, the major recreational amenity of Swan Park in Buncrana has been out of action for nine months having been badly damaged during the floods last August. Having such a key amenity along the Wild Atlantic Way out of action for that period shows the disconnect between plans and actions. Why bring people along this wonderfully scenic coastal route to a key facility that should have been repaired but which is out of action due to a lack of action?

The debacle around Leader funding has only worsened. My party colleague, Deputy Martin Kenny, recently raised the case of significant funding for a project being held up by Pobal due to a typing error in the application. One would think, in the face of such diligence, that Leader funding was quickly running out and that detailed checks like this needed to be carried out. During the debate on same, however, it was revealed that only 0.3% of Leader funding had been drawn down by the end of the December last year. The Government tells us that €250 million in Leader funding has been allocated up to the end of 2020, but we must draw a distinction between money that is allocated or set aside and the actual amounts paid out to community groups and projects. The money that is allocated to local action groups is simply not getting through to the projects themselves. Many groups have simply given up on their projects.

At the recent launch of Project Ireland 2040, a lot of references were made to improved transport links. Much of the focus was on national road projects which are at various stages in the planning process. In my county of Donegal, the consultation process for TEN-T projects in Ballybofey, Manorcunningham and Letterkenny has reopened. While progress and consultation on these projects is welcome, the state of minor and local roads is still a major concern. The €7 million reduction in the local improvement scheme budget for 2017 is shocking, especially considering the huge backlog of roads that need attention due to the suspension of the same scheme for years. In a recent article in The Irish Times, it was revealed that the Taoiseach, in his former role as Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, blocked funding for TEN-T projects in the west and north west in 2011. The current programme for Government contains a commitment to review the TEN-T projects within the first three months, but that never happened. Does the Government intend to do this at any stage? The western rail corridor was not mentioned in Project Ireland 2040. Why not? So much of the glaringly obvious has been missed by the Government. Rural transport services and infrastructure have to be in place and completed before much-needed employment, tourism and other opportunities make their way to rural Ireland. The Government needs to stop diving for cover behind the European Commission and the lack of transparency in that institution and explain to the regions what it will do to create regional balance.

In terms of broadband, many areas of the State are still effectively communication no-go areas. It is important to clarify that demand for high-speed broadband connections is not a question of extending a luxury that is available in larger towns to rural areas. The longer areas are without reliable, high-speed broadband connections, there more missed opportunities there are for businesses to be set up and for returning emigrants to explore innovative industries which can make the most of what rural Ireland has to offer. Since Eir pulled out of the bidding process for the delivery of the national broadband plan, has there been any movement on the awarding of the contract? The process has ended up effectively being a one horse race which does not instill confidence that the best deal will be obtained and that the winner of the bid will seek to roll out broadband to all areas, not just those that are easier to reach. Indeed, we are only in this shambles of a situation because Telecom Éireann was privatised in 1999. A State delivered broadband plan could have been completed more cheaply and quickly than the current plan. I would appreciate an update on the delivery to the remaining so-called blue areas across the State.

I will conclude by focusing on agriculture, which is at the core of the rural economy. Yesterday we had an announcement of an increase in the average family farm income, but we need to be very careful about how we assess that. Much of it was driven by increases in dairy prices which are very transitional. The Minister knows this and would have seen the impact in his constituency of a drop in dairy prices in recent years. We have a real crisis in farming and everyone representing a rural community knows that. Many sectors are on their knees because of the cheap food policy of the European Union and because we do not give farmers a fair price for their product but make them dance through hoops to get some type of a living from what they do. Let us be honest about EU subsidies. They are subsidies for supermarkets and meat factories. Let us stop making farmers out to be beggars and be honest about this. The cheap food policy of the European Union means that farmers in this State do not get fair price for what they produce. The policy leaves them struggling to fill out forms and deal with inspectors from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to make a living. If we are serious about rural development, we must go to the very core of rural Ireland which is our farming community.

We have an opportunity now with the negotiations on a new Common Agricultural Policy, CAP. First, there can be no cuts to the CAP budget whatsoever. Second, we must make sure that there is a fair distribution of the funding. That means imposing a cap on payments to some of the major farming operations and corporations. There must be a fairer distribution. I am thinking here of small farmers who are working on tough land, on so-called bad land up in the hills. That is the heart of rural Ireland. The Government needs to make sure that the negotiations on CAP is one of its top priorities. Broadband must also be a priority, along with roads and all of the other services that are required in rural Ireland.

I have nothing personal against the Minister. He is a sincere man and he tries his best. He represents a rural constituency with passion, but he must acknowledge that Government policies over many years have let us down badly and that we need to reverse that. If that is the game the Minister is playing, then I will work hand in hand with him.