Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 September 2018
69. Deputy Martin Kenny asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development his plans to ensure the viability and sustainability of towns and villages in rural Ireland that have lost or are losing their local post office. [38641/18]
View answerAs the Minister is aware, the issue of post offices is one he passed back fairly quickly. He is not in charge of it and I do not blame him. It is, however, something that has had a huge affect on many places in rural Ireland. Over the past couple of months, we have seen proposals to close many post offices. Most of those, proportionately, are in rural areas and communities that already have huge problems. Many of the towns where the post offices are being closed are ones where the bank went not that long ago and where the credit unions are under pressure. All these services are under huge pressure. As a rural Minister and a Minister looking after rural affairs, the criteria that An Post is using are the most anti-rural that could be used. Under the review mechanism, it says that a settlement of people in a rural area must be 500 or more in 50 occupied dwellings, no more than 100 m apart. Anyone who can come up with that does not understand rural Ireland. Will the Minister do something about this? Will he do something to invest in these communities to ensure they can prosper into the future?
As the Deputy is aware, the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment has policy responsibility for the postal sector. However, I am acutely aware of the value placed by rural communities on services such as the local post office.
Ensuring access to services for rural communities is an issue that cuts across almost all Departments. It also relates to services provided by the private sector. In my role as Minister for Rural and Community Development I am absolutely clear on the importance of ensuring that rural communities can access the services they need in order that they remain vibrant places in which to live and work. Project Ireland 2040 laid out the Government’s plans for the country’s long-term development, and a key commitment within it regarding rural Ireland is the provision of €1 billion for the new rural regeneration and development fund, which is an unprecedented commitment by Government to strengthen rural economies and in turn support stronger local communities. Initially, €315 million has been allocated for the period 2019 to 2022 and the first call for applications to the fund closes next Thursday.
My Department administers a range of other funding programmes that support local communities throughout Ireland. Of particular importance for those towns and villages most disadvantaged in terms of access to services include the CLÁR programme, which is a targeted investment programme for rural areas that aims to provide funding for small infrastructural projects and other initiatives in areas that have experienced significant levels of population decline. The community enhancement programme was launched by my Department in May 2018 and provides small capital grants to community groups across the country. I was delighted to announce a further €8 million in funding for this programme last Friday, bringing the total for 2018 to €12.5 million. The town and village renewal scheme supports the revitalisation of rural towns and villages, with particular focus on projects which have a clear positive economic impact on local communities. Since its launch in 2016, the town and village renewal scheme has invested €31.6 million in more than 450 projects across the country. The social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP, for 2018 to 2022, with funding of €38 million in 2018, provides capacity at local level to respond to the particular needs in each area. It helps those seeking employment or starting their own business. LEADER programme funding, administered by local action groups, LAGs, delivers the €250 million programme funding in accordance with the specific objectives and needs identified by the LAGs themselves as part of the development of local development strategies. Supports are tailored to the specific needs of each individual area. Libraries will also work with local partners to reach disadvantaged, marginalised and new communities, increasing these communities’ awareness of services available for families establishing in the area and as a resource for all. Some €150 million is expected to be invested by local authorities in library services in 2018.
In terms of directly facilitating access to services in rural Ireland, the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport has provided a funding allocation of €14.9 million for Local Link services in 2018. Such funding facilitated 1.9 million passenger journeys last year, providing a vital service for rural communities.
The list of statistics the Minister has read is impressive in one sense. Broadband was mentioned earlier as another acute issue in most rural areas. As Deputy Ó Cuív said, the reality for people on the ground is that they do not have broadband and cannot get it. That is the situation in many rural areas. The problem with rhyming off summary statistics is they hide many uncomfortable individual realities for people. The rural communities that really need investment are the places where the most potential exists. If the people in these places are given half a chance they will work harder than people from anywhere else, because they want to prove that their community is valuable and vibrant. They want to make it work, but they have to get that chance. They have to be stimulated by way of investment.
The Minister mentioned the €350 million fund, the deadline for which falls next week. My understanding is that much of that fund is earmarked for the larger towns in rural areas rather than the small villages which require investment. Small villages are dying on their feet. I drive through County Leitrim, and in places such as Drumkeeran, Mohill or Ballinamore, half of the shops are closed down. Shops in those towns are depending on the local farmers coming in and spending money. That is all they have. That is all that exists. We need to do something more than that for those areas. We have to provide opportunity for investment and the only way that can be done is to pump money into them. We should take risks on anyone who has an idea, because I can guarantee that those risks will pay back.
I have provided €80,000 to the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment to support the establishment of ten digital access post offices on a pilot basis. An Post has picked the ten post offices; we are looking at how we can support it in the digital era.
I do not like saying things like this, but I have to be honest sometimes. I have said to Deputy Ó Cuív as well that we must be honest about post offices. I could provide all the figures for the amount of post office closures under the current Government and the last two Governments. I want to be fair to the postmasters and postmistresses. I know them. We have lost some in our own county; they are being lost all over the country. We must be honest and say that people are not using the services we have. Some €615 million worth of goods was bought online in this country last year. People are bypassing their local shops, supermarkets, women's shops and clothes shops, and doing their shopping online.
I was in a village of 500 people recently-----
We are not against that.
The Deputy should listen. It was a village of 500 people, made up of 300 families. In the local post office, 50 TV licences had been bought, which amounts to one per week. If people want post offices and small shops and such services they are going to have to use them. Almost 87% of people last year taxed their cars online. People are getting their passports online. They are banking and paying their bills online. People are doing everything online. We have to look at new ideas to ensure that existing post offices survive.
In many parts of rural Ireland people cannot access those online services because they do not have broadband. The Minister really needs to deal with that issue. The points the Minister has made have some validity. It is true that services are not being used. Someone should have thought about the services being provided and questioned whether they were the correct services. It is clear that the post office services did not move with the times. We will park that issue for the moment.
There are issues concerning the roads in rural Ireland, which the Minister mentioned earlier. I welcome the money that was provided for local improvement schemes earlier in the year but will more money be put into such schemes before the end of this year, as happened last year? Some €17 million was provided for the schemes in 2017, and this year the amount is around €10 million. Can we come close to matching the figure from last year?
The reality for people is that rural Ireland is dying. That is the bare reality. When the children of these people are raised and go off to college, there is no opportunity for them to return to the place they come from. We do not want rural Ireland to become a tourist resort or a holiday home for retired people. We want it to be a vibrant community, where people want to live and work. We need to see that happen, we need to make it happen, but it will only happen with Government investment. Investment in broadband is key to ensuring that it will happen.
I disagree with the Deputy; rural Ireland is not dead. There have never been as many people working and living in rural Ireland. However, the small shops and little businesses that once were there are no longer present because people are shopping with their feet. People are working in towns and going home to rural Ireland in the evening, and are using the bigger outlets. That is a decision people are making and I do not criticise it. People have rights. They work hard, pay their taxes, and have an opportunity to go and live where they want to live and work where they want to work. Where they spend their money is their business. Rural Ireland is alive and well. I listen to this kind of talk all the time. Post offices were discussed at length over the summer. The reason post offices are closing is they are not being used. I heard the postmistress in my local area speaking on local radio recently. She held a public meeting two years ago at which she was told by local people that they would use her post office. She has said she is sorry for the few elderly people who were depending on it but she is not sorry for closing her post office, because people did not use it. There is no answer to that.
Returning to the rural regeneration and development fund, there is an urban regeneration scheme and a rural one. The urban scheme consists of €2 billion for towns with a population of 10,000 or more. The rural scheme will apply to towns with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants. To me, the most effective scheme is the town and village renewal scheme, and the Deputy knows this. I refer also to the outdoor recreation infrastructure scheme. The Deputy's own town of Drumshanbo has received €700,000 from my Department. The boardwalk attracted 80,000 visitors last year. Some eight new businesses were created around that. We have to do business differently in rural Ireland now. People say that rural Ireland is dead. It is not dead. We have fine, vibrant and good people working in rural Ireland.
