Danny Healy-Rae: LEADER cuts risk toppling rural supports

I'm glad to get the opportunity and first of all I want to welcome all the witnesses here and especially Mara Welsh from IRD Dúhala who has, back over the years, helped our side of the county and by that I mean East Kerry, Guinea-Bale, Turin-Cahill and Rathmore and indeed the sign of our work around the place in many places and we want it. And I had, I suppose, I was at other things in the morning and I just had this thing there that, that, you know, the areas as defined should not be on county boundary lines and I agree Mara totally in that because what has actually happened is the Sleaflugair area has been split into parishes like Ballydesmond and Rathmore, they're on both sides of the boundary and indeed Guinea-Bale is only a couple of miles from, from Noctagree and they're the one people as such and live the same kind of a way and that, you know, the same kind of values and everything like that but I suppose I've only a couple of minutes in relation to the cap reduction which has been fairly well signalled of 20% and that will have a serious impact on, on the leader problem and I'm, and if it push comes to shove I'm worried, are wondering about, like the role, the Rural Social Scheme which is a very valuable scheme for, for many, many people who are working it and who are working it over the years, will that be safe or will that remain as it is? I would say the Rural Social Scheme is safe in that it is exchequer funded and it's funded through the Department of Social Protection, it comes through the leader groups but where I would worry is if, as I said, the leader is like the trunk of the tree and Rural Social Scheme and social farming and all the other social inclusion, they're all the branches that hang off, if that trunk is so weakened and so eroded, yes the other things I think will fall and it would be a shame so that is why we're saying, you know, leader groups, if you like, or local development companies, we are a public good and we should be seen as a public good, the same as a school or a hospital, you know, if there's such a percentage cut they're not going to say, well now we'll cut so much of the school and we'll cut so much, you know, we don't do that, we should be ranked in that level, Deputy Eileen, I think it's important that that's the way we go forward rather than saying, tis, tis, they're cutting, we'll take our cut as well, I don't think we will, we've set out nationally, it's two and a half percent of the value of CAP and it's for our 425 million, that's the money value on it and I think that's where we need to go, thank you. And in relation to the enhancement works that are continually being operated, you know, and all the great work that has been done in the local villages and even towns, will there be a reduction in that? If we come in at the 425 million, which is what we're looking for, or the two and a half percent of the value of CAP, that should actually improve rather than decrease, especially for those of us who have got massive cuts, you know, we're down at 1.2 million for our Narkark leg, 1.1 million, I think, in South Cork, you know, that's not a programme, that's only like a measure, but, you know, we need to get that back up to the level of money that will sustain all the communities there and we're more than willing to work at that. Well, that's good at least and I have you mentioning there about the housing and it's a common topic practically every day up here, if waters were concrete blocks, there'd be enough houses for everyone and two for some, but one of the things that I've been highlighting for a long time is the amount of vacant houses that are in villages, first of all, one after the other and even out of country and like people lived in them before and for whatever reason they're vacant now, do you have any idea or for government as to what or how we could deal with him? I'm saying the tax should be reduced, do not from, some people are in the 50% tax bracket, it's not worth their while to go renting out houses and the rules are very strict and they can't get their house back, do you have any other thing that he could add to see, could we improve that or change the landscape in relation to the amount of properties that are vacant? If you don't say the remit, but I'd say it is, but it isn't, we did a fairly extensive search in Dohalo when the Ukrainian people came in and we were looking at and some of them were in temporary accommodations like Lahren and Bantyr, so rather than send them off to wherever, we looked at what houses would be available and the ones that were, you know, able to be rented and taken up straight away, so we have identified a good few, but on the derelict ones, I think it's an excellent idea, I know there are probably issues of ownership in some of them because somebody immigrated and the last person died and nobody knows what fourth cousin where owns them, there is a bit of that, but I think the grants that are in place at the moment for both vacant properties and dereliction properties, but what I'd like to see done is that that money would only be available to people who would purchase those derelict and develop them to live in themselves, you know, what I wouldn't like is to see REIT or whoever coming in and buying them all up and having, you know, a conglomerate of for renting, but I do think they do need to look at, you know, some houses were maybe rented at low rent because it was a neighbour's child or whatever, I know they're stuck with the 2% that, you know, on the couple of hundred that they were charging, so there is bits, we can look at that and maybe when we're putting it in in our submission, Chairman, we'll address it there as well, but I do think we have a role in that too. Thanks, Denny. Thank you very much.