Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 25 Sep 2018

Vol. 972 No. 4

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed)

Deputy Michael Lowry

I wish to draw a matter of national importance to the attention of the Taoiseach, which is the rapid decline of rural Ireland and the policies that encourage urbanisation. As a Deputy representing Tipperary, a predominantly rural constituency, I see the decline of communities, the reduction of resources, the closure of facilities, and a growing sense of disillusionment amongst the rural population. This is happening at a time our economy is improving at a faster rate than any in Europe. This economic trend is bypassing rural Ireland. The opportunities created by this growth in our economy are designed to sustain urban areas at the expense of rural Ireland. The Government and the national agencies are not doing enough to correct the imbalance between city and rural regeneration. There has been a gradual erosion of confidence and belief in the Government's support for rural development. In recent years, there has been a growing perception, evident in public policies such as the national development plan, that the future of Ireland only exists in the context of urban development and facilitation. People in rural Ireland now believe they are undervalued and less important in this new post-Brexit Ireland. There is an unsettling mood of powerlessness among rural dwellers. This is affecting their well-being and enthusiasm for continuing to contribute to an economy and society that offers little in return. The urban sector is absorbing a disproportionate amount of available resources. A balance must be restored or rural Ireland will die quickly and quietly.

The facts are clear. Agriculture and food production are the backbone of the rural economy. Every sector in agriculture is under enormous pressure and struggling to survive. Farm costs have escalated dramatically and net income has been decimated. Rural roads are neglected to the extent that many are impassable. Poor access to a proper broadband service and information technology is a huge disadvantage. It is impossible for country towns to attract industry as they have little prospect of competing against the city locations that have it in place. Rural depopulation is rampant due to lack of jobs. Significant numbers of young people are forced to migrate to urban centres. Post offices are closing in huge numbers without consideration of the social and community impact.

We have a wonderful nation of talented and creative people and, regardless of their addresses, those people are entitled to feel valued and empowered. We have to look at Ireland as a single entity and not two separate components. Our policies must be national and must benefit everyone.

The Taoiseach

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue and I assure him that the Government is committed to rural Ireland and to making sure that it is vibrant and prosperous and a place that people want to live in, stay in, and move their families to and where they can establish successful businesses. Our plan for the nation, Project Ireland 2040, has rural Ireland at its heart. We want the cities outside Dublin to grow twice as fast as Dublin for the first time and we want 200,000 more people living in rural Ireland by 2040. I travel around the country regularly, as does the Deputy, and it is becoming more evident that there are very different rural Irelands.

The tourist towns are very different from the market towns. What may be happening in a small town can be very different from what is happening in another town. We have plenty of towns that are vibrant and are doing well and we have other towns that are doing very poorly, where one can see the empty shop fronts and derelict premises in the town square. It is very sad to see that. At the same time we see towns and villages that are doing extremely well. We know that in every county in Ireland, bar two, the population has increased in last five years, and in every county, bar none, the population has increased in the last ten. Even in counties one can see movements from smaller towns to bigger towns and from some areas to others.

At the centre of ensuring rural Ireland does well is making sure there are good jobs. Jobs allow people to stay in the community, move into those communities and create revenue that supports business in those areas. We have seen a dramatic reduction in the percentage of people unemployed in recent years, down from 15% in 2012 to only 5.6% now. In the Deputy's own county of Tipperary, very much a rural county although a county with many large to medium-sized towns, the number of unemployed has gone from 18,000 in 2012 down to 9,000 now. The number of unemployed has halved in the last six years, which is really significant. We have seen jobs growth in seven out of all eight regions, and in the year gone by, four out of every five new jobs created were created outside of Dublin.

We have seen some really encouraging job announcements - for example, Combilift in Monaghan. I was there to hear 200 jobs announced. Some 90 jobs were added in Burnfoot by E+I in Donegal. Netwatch in Carlow is another example. What is great to see about those companies is that they are Irish indigenous companies setting up in our small towns and going global. We need to see more of that. We obviously need to continue to bring foreign direct investment, FDI, into the country and continue to promote foreign investment, but we need to further support Irish companies that do well and can grow themselves.

On broadband, I think the Deputy makes a very valid point. It is important to bear in mind that when this Government, Fine Gael and the Independents, came into office, about 52% of premises in Ireland had access to high-speed broadband. That is up to about 75% now, and we are going to go the whole way so that we become one of the first countries in the world where every premises, no matter how remote, has access to broadband.

Deputy Michael Lowry

I appreciate the Taoiseach's overview. I must ask him one specific question. Some months ago, I raised with him the issue of rural roads and funding therefor. We have had storms, floods and frost. All of those events have had a serious impact on the condition of rural roads. At the time, the Taoiseach said to me that it was an issue and I said people in rural areas felt abandoned, forgotten, neglected. Many roads are impassable due to their condition. We need a concerted and co-ordinated plan to restore rural roads. The last time I raised this the Taoiseach said in response that he would look at it when the councils had spent the money they had been allocated. I am now asking him to look at it in the context of the budget. Can the Taoiseach make further funds available to councils to repair our rural roads?

The Taoiseach

People in rural Ireland pay road tax, tax on their diesel and petrol and property tax. They are entitled to have decent roads. As the Deputy will know, there has been a significant increase in funding for roads throughout Ireland this year. In the Deputy's county, the regional and local roads allocation, which had been €18.4 million in 2017, was increased to €21.7 million this year. That is in line with increases in the budget for roads across the country. Moreover the local improvement scheme, which is really important for people living on laneways that are not taken in charge, was restored and a budget of €10.8 million was set aside for it.

First, I encourage local authorities that have not spent all their allocation to do so. I know that many have but some have not. The weather is deteriorating, so I encourage local authorities that have not done so to spend the budget they have to improve roads across rural Ireland and in urban areas too. Yes, a further increase in spending on regional and local roads is something we will examine as part of the budget, acknowledging that for many years there was underinvestment in roads, particularly during the crisis period, and we need to catch up on the backlog.