Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I welcome the Minister of State again. It seems to be that he is always here answering and responding to me but I am delighted he is here. I understand that the Minister cannot be here and I wish him well.

This Commencement matter relates to nodes and in preparation for this commentary on nodes I decided to look at a number of county development plans this morning. Strange as it might seem and not knowing that the Minister of State was coming in, I pulled Kilkenny County Council so it is appropriate that the Minister of State is here as the Deputy for Kilkenny. I will quote the Kilkenny County Council development plan and I want to praise Kilkenny County Council as it is one of the leading councils on nodes. Section 4.7 of the Kilkenny county development plan on rural nodes policy talks about the potential for smaller towns and villages and the settlement hierarchy of rural nodes. It defines what a rural node is and talks about the key objectives for rural nodes in rural communities, particularly in Kilkenny, the Minister of State's constituency. Objective 4J is as follows: "To develop a programme for ‘new homes in small towns and villages’ in conjunction with, public infrastructure agencies such as Irish Water and local communities for the provision of serviced sites with appropriate infrastructure to attract people to build their own homes and live in small towns and villages". That is what we might like to call small nodes when it comes to the hierarchy and I quite like the word "node". It goes on to state: "It is an objective of the Council to facilitate and assist Irish Water" in this and it talks about examples of this work going on in Mullinavat, Paulstown, Bennettsbridge, Inistioge, Piltown, Fiddown and Kells. What a coincidence that we should be talking about Kilkenny and I acknowledge the enormous work the county council has done there.

This issue originally came about because it was suggested that the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, who cannot be with us today, made an announcement. The headline in The Meath Chroniclewas: "The Minister says funds available for development of rural 'nodes' ". In response to that a number of councillors came out and asked where the money is. This article was published on Saturday, 21 May 2022, and the county manager for Meath said he knew nothing about it or about any money and that there were 50 rural nodes possibilities within the county but that the council had no funding.

I will not go on and talk about the further detail in the article where things were attributed as being said by the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, other than to say it raises a critical issue about rural housing and communities and how we can support local authorities to develop rural communities. We need to keep these areas alive. We have schools, infrastructure, churches and sports clubs in rural Ireland and people want to live in rural communities. We must provide homes for people in rural communities, especially where there is an older generation of people who are heavily relying on a son, daughter or member of family who may wish to build a new home close to them.

We have to move on. We have been waiting for a more detailed response to the Flemish decree which deals with rural housing.Successive Governments have suggested they would introduce a rural housing policy in response to the findings of the Flemish decree and we are still awaiting them. The Minister of State might be able to advise the Seanad and myself where we are at regarding a follow-up in terms of rural housing policy, being particularly mindful of the Flemish decree and its recommendations, findings and deliberations. I would like to know where the money is. I accept and welcome the development of rural nodes. I look forward to encouraging and seeing the Government encourage more people to build new homes in rural parts of the country that are sustainable and appropriate to their setting. I would be more interested in hearing where funding is that has been committed to these rural nodes.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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I welcome the pupils in the Gallery. I am not sure what school they are in but they all very welcome to the Seanad Chamber. It is fantastic to have schools visit these Houses.

I thank Senator Boyhan for his question and for citing the example of Kilkenny. He is correct. It is a very good example but we always do things well in Kilkenny, as he would know well. Rural nodes are the lowest tier in the settlement hierarchy and comprise a cluster of developments where public wastewater and-or public water infrastructure is currently not provided. These nodes contain important services, including schools and community facilities supporting the surrounding rural area. Rural nodes are designated for small-scale limited development at a sustainable scale for immediate local need, including one-off housing for persons who comply with the local need criteria, local services, small-scale employment and community facilities. The Senator may be aware the development of rural nodes is subject to proper planning considerations and the environmental carrying capacity of an area.

Consideration of planning applications for development within such nodes will have regard to the role and form of the node within the wider rural area with particular care being taken that these settlements do not compete with the designated larger and smaller serviced villages in the services they provide or the role and function they play within the rural area.

As part of Housing for all, the Government is committed to developing Croí Cónaithe, towns, which will provide funding for local authorities to provide serviced sites with appropriate infrastructure to attract people to build their own homes and live in small towns and villages. It is expected that this fund will be announced shortly. In tandem with this, Irish Water is providing funding for the servicing of many towns and villages, and further funding initiatives are available through the Department of Rural and Community Development. In particular, further rounds of funding under the rural regeneration and development fund are scheduled for later this year and early in 2023. Under this fund, applicants need to provide a comprehensive business case as part of any application. Any application relating to a rural node to be located in a town or village would need to provide clear evidence of the need and level of demand in an area and the growth potential which the project will meet. I am satisfied that through these range of schemes there are potential sources of funding for the sustainable development of rural locations.

I agree with what the Senator said. There are many across the country, particularly in the west, that are in rural decline. Very vibrant communities live in some of the rural locations he outlined in County Kilkenny. They are being allowed to expand in line with the carrying capacity of waterways, water infrastructure and local infrastructure. Our local authority has done very well in ensuring these communities can remain vibrant through funding schemes such as the town and village renewal scheme and other schemes to help support them and keep rural schools, rural post offices etc. open. The challenge is to strike a balance to ensure we get capacity in our towns for them to grow to a level where public transport and walking and cycling routes to school are viable for communities. However, we must also be strategic in addressing rural areas whose populations are is decline and that will be evident shortly from the census figures. Local authorities need to be strategic in trying to ensure we can repopulate those areas and keep those communities vibrant. We need people living in rural Ireland. That is something to which the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, has been deeply committed throughout his tenure as the Minister of State with responsibility for planning and local government.

In summary, there is no doubt it is a significant challenge. It is not always enticing for people to live in rural areas. It requires a significant level of commitment to be become part of a local community, part of a local GAA club or to send one's children to the local schools. That is important but it is also important we have a suite of policies at our level and at local government level to support rural communities to grow and to prosper.

Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response, which was grand, but I asked for the details of the funds. The final paragraph of the reply, which was prepared on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, states " I am satisfied ... through a range of schemes, there are potential sources of funding”. That is not an answer to my question. He is satisfied but I need to be satisfied, as do we all. I asked this question because rural councillors throughout the country have said there have been promises of financial support for rural nodes, but where is the funding? The reply indicates there will be other phases of funding from 2022 to 2023, but when will we have that? I respectfully ask the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, if possible, to request an official in the Department to forward a supplementary response indicating a timeline for these funding sources. Who is administering them? Can we inform the local authorities and planning authorities of what is happening? What is the plan? The Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, clearly knows something more, at least I hope he does, given the reply states he is satisfied in this regard. Perhaps he could furnish us with a schedule of the funding he has identified, secured, discussed and told people about in order that we can get that into the public domain. I sincerely thank the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, for coming to the house today.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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There has been significant investment by the Government in Irish Water and much of that will, excuse the pun, trickle down into local rural communities. We see it as being vitally important that small-scale water and wastewater treatment plants are upgraded to meet the needs of local rural areas. The funding is directed through local authorities. They are responsible for the local road infrastructure, lighting etc. in these rural nodes we are discussing. That prioritisation falls back on to local elected members, who have an important role to play in ensuring funding is distributed equally in their urban areas and counties to enable rural areas to survive. From that perspective, the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, is saying he wants to enable this within development plans to ensure they reflect the rural node principles but also that we ensure we give capacity to our regional towns, smaller towns and villages such as some of the places the Senator mentioned in County Kilkenny. The funding streams come down to local level and how local authorities prioritise the funding and support for local infrastructure and services. These areas have to be serviced by many other agencies, as well as local authorities. We will come back to the Senator with a response if he is seeking more detail on those specific funding streams.

Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State.