I move:
That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to provide that regard be had by public bodies to the desirability of reducing socio-economic and other inequalities suffered by those in rural Ireland, to provide for the carrying out of rural impact assessments in respect of measures that are likely to have a significant socio-economic impact or effect on rural Ireland and to provide for related matters.
The Bill proposes to look at the impact of all legislation that comes before the House in respect of the social and economic status of people in rural areas. As we know, there are huge inequalities between people living in rural and urban areas.
I watched the debate on television last week about religious denominations in schools and how people in Dublin are having such terrible problems getting children into schools. Where I live in Aughavas there are 60 children attending the local school. The school over the road from it in Cloone has a similar number. If there are no more families in our region in the next while, those schools will be under threat of losing teachers and closing. In Kiltyclogher in north Leitrim, the rural school is under threat of closing this year. The issue of inequality that exists in this country is really an issue of ensuring people can live in rural Ireland. To have people living in rural Ireland, we have to have infrastructure in rural Ireland and a development of jobs and opportunity. Opportunity can only come if a person is on a platform where they can reach that opportunity. It is true to say that everyone has access to education and all of these things but for many people living in rural areas across the length and breadth of Ireland, they are not in a position to reach the opportunity that may exist. It is a huge problem for an awful lot of people in our society. If we institute laws and different things in this Parliament, we end up doing them but in the vast majority of cases, we see that they only look after the people that live where there are large populations.
The motorway network in Ireland was brought to the attention of many people in this assembly over the past number of weeks by the chambers of commerce in Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim and various areas. If one looks at the map of the road network, it does not go near the north west at all. It is similar with the rail network - it blocks out huge areas of the country. If we are going to invest in the regions and ensure there is opportunity for people living in the regions, we have to make sure we do it everywhere. We have to invest in places where there are low populations at present. If we do not do that, there will never be people living in these areas.
We see the same thing in our health services. At the moment, the health service in the north west is particularly under stress. I raised the issue here the other day of the CAMHS service in Sligo. We have a service in place for children and adolescents looking for mental health services but there is no child psychiatrist in place. The child psychiatrist keeps changing because they keep leaving because nobody wants to come and stay and live in rural areas. That is the problem we have everywhere in the country. We have the same situation with our ambulance service. At the moment the target is supposed to be that the ambulance is at the scene of an incident within 15 minutes. Where I live, an ambulance would find it hard to be there within 40 minutes. People are at serious risk of losing their lives because we do not have the infrastructure in place. The Rural Equality Bill attempts to ensure that whatever laws we pass in this Parliament make sure that people in rural areas get equal access to everything. It does not mean that people who live in Tallaght will be discommoded. It means that people who live in Leitrim, Donegal, Mayo, rural parts of County Clare or anywhere else can have a fair and equal service with everyone else in every other part of the country. Bringing in this Bill will ensure we do that and that we look at the impact of anything being done on rural Ireland. Will we ensure that rural Ireland is a place that can prosper and where there will be a future for people because at the moment there is no sense of future for many people living in rural areas? Many of them are young people who are forced to emigrate, if not out of the country, certainly to the larger, more populated areas.
We want to make sure we service everyone in every part of the country. That includes those who live in rural areas. I particularly think of older people who live in rural Ireland, many of whom have absolutely no access to public transport. They have very little access to an adequate health service. To put that in place, we must ensure that everything we bring through Parliament has the concept of rural equality built into it. That is what this Bill is about. I commend it to the House.
