Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Macra na Feirme is having its pre-budget submission launch today and has extended an invitation to all Senators and TDs to come to Buswells Hotel between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. I undertook to highlight some of the issues for Macra na Feirme, including the challenges for young people living in rural Ireland, creating a more sustainable agricultural sector, succession, farm planning, which is really critical for the sector, supporting young people living and working in rural locations, the resilience of rural communities and fair and equitable access to housing. We have been talking about the rural housing guidelines for five years in this House but we still have not received them. Elections tend to bring a focus to this issue so we need to do something about that. Other issues are rural transport, integration and equal access to transport in terms of linking rail and bus services, which is really important. There are the more important issues of healthcare and access to it, particularly mental healthcare and social inclusion, which is a really important point. Macra na Feirme is an organisation that is effectively very supportive of young people in rural Ireland having meaningful lives there. It put together a pre-budget submission clearly setting out its asks and I encourage as many Members as possible to go along today and engage with its members. There will be an array of members of Macra na Feirme from all over the country who want, and are eager to see, how many politicians will cross the road to meet them today. That is the challenge for us and I commend its pre-budget submission.