Gerry Adams
Ceist:1. Deputy Gerry Adams asked the Taoiseach the number of meetings of the Cabinet committee on regional and rural affairs that have been held since 1 December 2016. [3069/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 7 February 2017
Ceisteanna (1, 2, 3)
Brendan Howlin
Ceist:2. Deputy Brendan Howlin asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on regional and rural affairs last met; and when it is planned to meet next. [4272/17]
Amharc ar fhreagra
Micheál Martin
Ceist:3. Deputy Micheál Martin asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on regional and rural affairs last met. [4539/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraFreagraí ó Béal (31 píosaí cainte)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 3, inclusive, together.
The Cabinet committee on regional and rural affairs meets on a regular basis, providing a whole-of-Government approach to growth in the rural economy, as well as supporting quality of life and local service delivery in the regions.
This includes supporting the development and implementation of the recently published Action Plan for Rural Development.
The committee last met on 12 December 2016 and is due to meet again later this month.
We are not allowed to know how much input the Cabinet committee had into the Government's rural development plan, but there is really nothing in the plan that is new. Much like the promises we have had regarding health services, the document is long on rhetoric but without any real substance. The publication of the rural development plan coincides with the closure of post offices, Garda stations and public bus services. The allocation of €60 million over three years for 600 towns and villages is only window-dressing when we consider the significant structural and funding issues facing rural Ireland. The announcement, once again, of an Atlantic economic corridor is pointless unless there is a strategy to implement it, backed up by proper funding. If the Government is serious about addressing the imbalance of investment between urban and rural areas, there must be a substantial regional and rural strategy supported by substantial investment.
Does the Taoiseach accept that tillage farmers are facing a significant threat to their future? The Government's insistence that the low-cost loan fund in this year's budget will address the crisis ignores the nature of the threat because it does not deal with the cashflow problems facing grain farmers. If he has not already done so, will the Taoiseach commit to raising the matter with the European Commission and, in particular, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Phil Hogan? Will the Government seek financial support from the emergency funds, as France has done? If the French did it, why should we not do the same?
I hope the Deputy read the Action Plan for Rural Development, which provides an opportunity, as part of a comprehensive programme, for every part of rural Ireland to achieve progress. As the Deputy knows, there will be €1.2 billion in direct payments to farmers under the Common Agricultural Policy and €4 billion under the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, including €250 million under the Leader programmes to support local communities. An allocation of €60 million is being given over the next three years to rejuvenate more than 600 rural towns and villages through the town and village renewal scheme, CLÁR and the built heritage investment scheme. In addition, €80 million is being allocated for flood relief measures up to 2019, increasing to €100 million per annum by 2021.
All those measures are already enacted.
That is not the case. Work is under way down in Craughwell, which I hope the Deputy will visit.
I am looking forward to it.
There is €150 million in funding under regional property programmes sponsored by IDA Ireland to increase foreign direct investment, a €50 million investment by Enterprise Ireland to support collaborative approaches to job creation in the regions and €37.5 million to implement the social inclusion and community activation programme. It is not all new funding but all of the programmes are being drawn together.
In respect of the question the Deputy asked about farmers, new taxation measures to assist the farming sector include an increase in the earned income tax credit for self-employed farmers, the roll-out of new income averaging step-out for farmers, the extension of farm restructuring capital gains tax relief to the end of 2019 and the investigation of taxation measures which might support farmers through periods of income volatility.
What we have heard from the Taoiseach is simply a rehash of a series of announcements already made in respect of the capital plan and so on.
Come on. It is all mentioned there.
I have read every page of it. The only new funding announced is €60 million for 600 towns over three years, that is, €33,000 per year per town. That might be used to buy a few additional lamp posts-----
Or hanging baskets.
-----but it will not make any significant difference.
The Taoiseach says I should read the action plan. I have read it. I am interested in, for example, action No. 183, which relates to the continued delivery of Inland Fisheries Ireland's Something Fishy national schools programme to inform and educate students on fish, water and angling. Will that rejuvenate rural Ireland?
In much more concrete terms, the issue of Brexit will have a huge impact on rural Ireland. I was briefed by the ESRI last week. Dublin may gain a slight overall advantage according to the ESRI's assessment, but Brexit will have an enormously negative impact on some regions in Ireland. In that context, the regional action plans for jobs, which were carefully constructed during my party's time in government, are no longer fit for purpose because all the metrics have changed. Would the Taoiseach consider re-examining how we will have a regional and spatial joined-up strategy to ensure that we might abate the damage that is certain to be visited upon rural Ireland in the coming period?
In respect of action No. 183, I do not mean this in any disrespectful fashion-----
Something Fishy.
-----if one has ever seen the sense of amazement and wonder of children in dabbling for fish in rivers or lakes, one will know that the wonders of nature are a source of constant amazement to them. It is a learning experience that they carry with them throughout their lives, involving respect for nature, the importance of clean water and how nature thrives and does not thrive in places like that.
That is rural to the Taoiseach.
It is only a very small issue but, as Deputy Howlin will understand, in the rivers of Wexford or wherever, fishing was always an important pastime, particularly for young lads who would be wanting to catch the big trout or perch.
It must be caught in Bellewstown.
In respect of the serious point Deputy Howlin raises, none of the 20 towns mentioned under the spatial programme that used be there previously realised the potential envisaged in respect of them. The Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Coveney, is not only working with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, in respect of the capital review programme, he is also looking ahead to 2040 in the context of both the local and regional authorities but without naming town against town. The latter became a political issue on the previous occasion. Here is an opportunity for all of them to send in their statutory programmes regarding how they see their areas and regions developing in the next 30 years and in light of the fact that the population is due to increase by 1 million during that time, to indicate where those people will live, where they will work, what transport they will use and what issues will need to be dealt with. Public consultation is already under way in that regard..
During the general election campaign Fine Gael Deputies and some Labour Deputies also felt the full force of the anger of regional and rural communities as a result of five years of policies which people identified as neglecting rural Ireland and, in particular, on foot of their witnessing the loss of public services and the suffering endured by business owners throughout the country. The only response to date has been cosmetic. It has been the addition of the word "Rural" to a Minister's title and the announcement that a plan was on the way. The plan has been published and one would have to wonder why it took so long. It is a rehash or pulling together of all existing policies. As Deputy Breathnach informs me, even the schools programme has been in place for quite a number of years. Deputy Ó Cuív quite rightly described it as a reheated dinner. It is a long list of what is already happening, which the Government has put between two covers and labelled "Action Plan".
It is extraordinary that there is not a mention of the blood-stock sector in the plan for rural Ireland. There are thousands of jobs in the equine sector - trainers, breeders, race courses, from small players up to big players. There is not a mention of the sector, yet it is sustainable, it is organic and it is in located in rural Ireland. On fisheries, Deputy Howlin is correct about Brexit. In the maritime communities of rural Ireland, there is a real crisis coming in the context of Brexit because of so many fish species being caught in British waters. That is a serious issue. The most incredible omission is that the plan contains no new commitment to a guaranteed level of access to or quality of public services. How can the Government realistically claim to have a vision for rural Ireland if it cannot say what level of education, policing, health or other services should be available? That is the overall metric that is required from this plan and it is non-existent.
In respect of policing, the commitment is to increase the Garda force to 15,000. For the first time in many years, there is an increase in the number of gardaí on the streets.
We are talking about rural Ireland in the plan.
That applies to rural Ireland as well. We have set out the policy in respect of increasing the number of teachers. The advantages for small towns and villages throughout the rural Ireland are dealt with under different incentive schemes arising from the CEDRA report, which was published a number of years ago and which has now evolved into this. The plan draws together many of the schemes that are there already but it is an important document in the context of having a strategy that can be both planned against and monitored to see that it is being implemented.
Another element in the plan is the creative Ireland report, which was so strongly evidenced during the 1916 centenary commemorative events. It is an important decision to have art as part of public policy. Deputy Micheál Martin supports the focus not only on science, technology, engineering or mathematics but also on the artistic, imaginative and creative opportunity to which the people have given so much expression.
The horse racing sector is a fundamentally important part that is referred to specifically in the agriculture portfolio as part of the Minister's brief.
It is not in the plan for rural Ireland.
I think there is a reference to it. I will have a look at it. I think there is a reference.
In the commentary by various organisations and groups about the impact of Brexit, it has been noted that the area that runs along the spine of Ireland from Longford and Westmeath to Waterford is particularly at risk of negative impacts from Brexit. Having been involved, along with my colleague, Deputy Howlin, in making provision for additional resources for both IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland, what I am concerned and extremely disappointed about, in the context of the document, is that the Government does not seem to have had the time to look at the requirements for a change of focus in both of those organisations. Such a change is particularly important if they are to assist in producing anything like the number of jobs outlined in the ambitions relating to the programme. The Government also does not appear to have had time to engage in a specific examination of the very real problems that exist in the context of accessing credit, especially relatively small-scale loans for starter and owner-operated businesses in rural towns and villages. The Government will not create jobs unless it encourages many new small businesses to start up operations. The Government will not get many large businesses transferring operations to the 300 towns it has identified. In the context of Brexit, there appears to be no alternative strategy to help small businesses in the areas to which I refer to get up on their feet. In order to do so, they will need access to credit.
The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed, has made available €150 million in low-interest, long-term credit to those in the farming community.
There is an increase in the micro loans that have been arranged for the credit unions and the facilities for that are increasing. Deputy Burton will be aware, as she played an important part in it, that there has been a reduction in unemployment from 15% to 7%, which speaks for itself.
I was talking about areas such as Waterford.
There is also the change the Deputy introduced in the Intreo offices of the Department of Social Protection where people now have specific case officers to work with them in terms of an enhanced rural social employment scheme or that type of operation.
I was not talking about that.
The enterprise offices at local level are all very busy. They have been well funded and opportunities are increasing every day. I note that the number of planning permission applications is rising and the commencement of construction of rural houses, which I have not seen for years, is under way again. These are signs of people having confidence in their locality and investing. Obviously, we want that to continue. The area from Longford down through the midlands is part of the lakelands district, which is a specific focus of Tourism Ireland and the hospitality sector. It has great potential to increase tourist numbers and the number of people passing through. The development of blueways and greenways continues and there is evidence that a huge local benefit can result from such development.