I am glad the Chairman outlined Irish Rural Link’s main aim and operating process. We are about sustaining rural communities that have people living in them who have jobs and that have a good balance of ages. Our submission discusses micro and small and medium sized businesses in rural areas. At another meeting last night, we were disturbed to hear that according to the Western Development Commission, WDC, there has been a decline in the development of small rural businesses by 4% in the past few years. During a recession when jobs are hard found, one might expect more people would try to start a small business but these figures show that this was not the case. The main factor is they cannot access capital. In 2017, almost half the jobs created by IDA Ireland were located in the greater Dublin region. We are not anti-Dublin and are not trying to create a divide, but that is a fact.
Just over 4,000 jobs were created in the midlands region, which is far short of the figure nationally, for example, but in other western and south-western regions, similar figures apply. Jobs are not being created in these areas at the same speed as they are in the Dublin region. Mircoenterprises account for most of the jobs in rural areas. The issues that affect these enterprises are access to credit, high-speed broadband, which is a significant problem, the retention of staff and skilled workers, transport and the role of social enterprises.
Over the past year, Irish Rural Link has established partnerships as part of an EU-funded project, which examined the barriers in rural Ireland to creating and sustaining microprojects. Microprojects are the kind of small projects that might have between one and three people, and are dotted across the country and which rely on a broadband service. Most people can work from home or from a small business, perhaps in a village, but they require broadband. That report will be published shortly. We will present it to all members here and to the European Commission on how we might try to retain jobs in rural Ireland.
Carbon tax is an issue. Irish Rural Link members are not climate change deniers but we cannot sit around and watch people be penalised by way of such a tax. There have been efforts to implement a carbon tax for the past three years. According to the media, one would think that we do not have a carbon tax but we have had one since 2013 at 7 cent per litre, something which did not reduce emissions by even 0.01%. The reason for that is that rural dwellers do not have a choice. It is an issue that often arises for microbusiness as it impinges on the development of small business. We hope the committee will support Irish Rural Link in asking the Government to call in the stakeholders so that Ireland can have its own climate summit and examine how we can decarbonise in a way that is based on a just transition, as former President, Mary Robinson, who is an active climatologist, advocates.
We have said much about local public banking. Ireland has committed to introducing vibrant, competitive banking. Mario Draghi, who was in Dublin recently and appeared before the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach, was clear that we should get on with that. Irish Rural Link has put forward a proposal where there would be eight regional banks, each its own entity, which would complement all other financial institutions in the region, especially credit unions. Previously, we had the Agricultural Credit Corporation, ACC, and the Industrial Credit Corporation, ICC, which worked well. There are thousands of farmers and shopkeepers across the country whose first loan came from the ACC and they developed their business from there.
We introduced a particular model because that is what one does when one seeks change, but we have told the Government parties to pick the model that they think works, as long as it is a community banking model. Whoever wants to step up and take that on will be happy with that, but until then, the figures provided by the WDC will continue to apply. The bureaucracy involved in getting loans under the new regulation is such that by the time the loan is approved, or worse, appealed to the credit review committee, the idea will have passed and the cash flow is no longer a problem; it is a disaster.
We are simply stating, very strongly, that unless we manage to introduce a public banking system into the State we will consign rural Ireland to continually being underfunded and undercapitalised, unless somebody steps up and we invite all stakeholders in the business to step up to that process.
We have sent the committee a full submission on this, including the rebuttal to the report published in July. I urge the members to read our rebuttal of the report that came from the Department of Finance in July. I believe it will really educate the members.
On the issue of broadband, we hope there will be no reduction of commitment to the rolling out of broadband. We are aware that it has hit a hurdle, to say the least. Some public statements around the cost of broadband and the slow take-up of broadband are leading us down a road of spin, saying that if it costs so much and if rural people are not taking it up, we will not do it at all. I hope that is not the intention of those who spin that story. To be clear, broadband is not just essential; it is as essential as water and electricity. Failure to deliver it will really leave us in the space where we are sending our young people to the major cities, and particularly the Dublin region, forever. That is where we are going. We in Irish Rural Link are very clear that even though we believe there is no plan B, if the report outlining the realities around broadband is negative, we need a plan B. We urge this committee to not slack off. The committee has been extremely supportive in calling for a proper broadband service in Ireland.
The whole issue of staff retention and skilled workers is important. We need greater cohesion among the institutes of technology and we need a really strong educational link to ensure that skilled staff are retained in rural Ireland. When one considers the competition, the reality is that the more competitive and higher paying jobs seem to be outside the various regions. We have to be careful. We need a strong policy from the Department of Education and Skills to ensure strong linkage between the institutes of technology and the various colleges in the regions to afford the best opportunity for people to get skilled up and to stay in the region.
Transport is a real issue. We are extremely supportive of the LocalLink project. Irish Rural Link was one of the many voices in the early days that supported the establishment of LocalLink. Many people in rural areas do not have alternative transport apart from their cars. This goes back to the carbon tax. We need, and we have the opportunity, to start introducing innovative ways to ensure there is alternative transport. Most pubs, shops and villages are dying as a result of poor transport facilities. We really need to tackle this and it should be tackled at the summit I am calling for.
I will now turn to the issue of social enterprise. Irish Rural Link is an umbrella body for many of the meals on wheels projects. It also covers the wetlands project. The wetlands offer an opportunity to bring the disused or used bogland into a situation where they can actually create jobs. We have a very strong network set up. It will look at biodiversity and how we can transform the used wetlands and bogland into a strong, educational source of knowledge where it can create jobs. The Life Project on the midland bog, which we are part of, is creating jobs. We could do a lot more of that.
With regard to the meals on wheels projects, we need to reform the way we do social enterprise. As we speak there are groups of people travelling the boreens of Ireland to deliver meals to housebound people and to people recovering from surgery. They do it at huge expense to themselves, often in a voluntary capacity. There is no cohesion at all in how this is done. It should be covered under community services or social enterprise programmes. I urge the committee to look at a redefinition, especially in the social field, of what a social enterprise project is. Older people, for example, want to live in their own homes but they need supports. In many cases those supports are being supplied voluntarily, but there is no cohesion or structure to it. If I find myself needing that help in a few years' time, and I am getting closer to it, I would like to think I am not just depending on the goodwill of volunteers in my area. I would like to think there is a proper system in place so that when I need it I can get the support. Most older people are really crying out for that support.
Finally, I commend the work of the committee and its members over the years. It has done tremendous work. I thank the Chairman for having Irish Rural Link appear before the committee and we will continue to advocate for the issues I have outlined, and many more. I wish the members well in their deliberations today.
