Conor D McGuinness: Rural Ireland Needs Real Delivery

We're here today, this afternoon, discussing the consultation process but if we're being honest about it, Rural Ireland doesn't lack for consultation, it doesn't lack for strategies and plans. What it actually lacks is delivery, I would say urgency and alignment across government policy and that's where government is failing and has failed. Minister, you're the one tasked with rural proofing this government, you're meant to be the voice around the cabinet table defending Rural Ireland. So this is a fair question to ask, where was our rural future when the national development plan doubled down on urban concentration and left rural communities fighting for basic investment? Where were you, Minister, when housing policy stalled again and again and again and rural housing delivery was effectively frozen in large parts of the country on Gaeilteacht, St Oramh? Where were you when budget decisions reduced investment in rural development, including cuts to leader? And where were you when families in Rural Ireland were hit first and hardest by the fuel crisis and calls for meaningful support were ignored? Where workers, farmers, contractors and hauliers were being demonised? And Minister, where were you and where was this set of policy when fishing communities faced devastating quota cuts? Where was our rural future when post offices were being closed right, left and centre? When GP clinics were being closed? During the, at this stage, annual school transport chaos that is unleashed across the state every August and September? When leader funding was being cut? When local roads budgets don't keep pace with construction inflation? When ambulances and guards are rarely available on time? And when a generation is locked out of home ownership and sent packing to Dublin or Dubai? Rural evidence has seen no evidence of a minister or indeed a strategy at the cabinet table successfully arguing its case or actually standing up for communities. Because the reality is this, there's a growing gap between what government says about Rural Ireland and what government actually does. And last week, former Taoiseach Leo Bradcar said the quiet part out loud. And in doing so, he belied an approach that has underpinned Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael's attitude to rural communities for far too long in this state. The consultation paper published last year contained no targets, no timelines, no funding commitments and no clear delivery mechanisms. It asked communities for their views but it didn't and doesn't set out how any of these things will be delivered. And that reflects a wider problem as far as I'm concerned. The programme for government, the national planning framework, the national development plan, the housing plan, they're not aligned with the stated ambition of the consultation, of the last strategy or indeed yours, Minister of Supporting Rural Ireland. And in fact, any objective analysis would suggest that they're working against it. The OECD report on the old rural policy made this clear. It has identified centralised decision-making, weak local delivery capacity and a lack of accountability as structural weaknesses in Ireland's rural policy. It also identifies, rightly, housing as a central determinant of rural development. And that is a core issue that has been long ignored. Housing is now the defining challenge for rural Ireland. Communities are losing young people, population decline is accelerating, local services, schools and clubs are under pressure. The GAA's own demographics report confirms that many rural communities are already experiencing decline that is undermining their long-term sustainability. And yet housing delivery remains concentrated in urban areas, insufficient in scale and misaligned with rural needs. Rural Ireland is facing a double burden. Too little new supply and often poor existing housing stock. And at the same time, infrastructure deficits are holding communities back. Water and wastewater capacity is preventing development in towns and villages, transport options are limited, road networks are underfunded, digital connectivity remains inconsistent. Without addressing those fundamentals, no rural strategy will succeed. So the question is not about consultation. The question is whether government is willing to change direction. And in Sinn Féin, we've made our position clear any time we've spoken about this, which has been many and often. Housing must be central to the next rural strategy. That means annual rural housing delivery targets, a service size program that works and a sustained investment in water and wastewater infrastructure. It means aligning housing delivery with employment patterns and regional economic development. It means ending the contradictions between planning policy and rural sustainability. We've put forward plans for additional Gordie, enhanced plans for primary care, meaningful steps to reduce deprivation and growing energy poverty. But it also means clear targets, defined timelines, assigned responsibility and annual reporting to the Dáil in the new iteration of the plan. Because without that accountability, this will simply be another strategy that describes problems rather than solving them. Another thing to gather dust on the top of a shelf somewhere. So it requires an infrastructure first approach, investment in water, transport and connectivity must come ahead of and alongside development. And there must be targeted supports for Gaelic Island and coastal communities, recognising the unique pressures they face. Rural Ireland does not need another consultation exercise that leads nowhere. It needs leadership, a cabinet, it needs alignment across government, it needs delivery and it needs an about face from this government.