Albert Dolan: Fix Rural Transport, Let Young People Build

Go raibh maith agat lás ceann Comhairle and I welcome this discussion on the future of the rural policy and our rural future and I welcome the opening and consideration of the consultation for SAME and I think it's so important that people right across this country whether they're in an urban area or a rural area contribute to what they believe the future of rural Ireland should look like and also reflecting on the first phase of this plan, what went right, what went wrong and how we can do better because in this house and in many parliaments across the world that's the question that we always have to ask ourselves is how can we do better but for rural Ireland there are a few key areas where I believe we can really really improve things and over the coming years use this policy as the document that guides everything we do to improve rural Ireland and particularly for our rural future I want to talk about rural transport because many people love rural Ireland because they can work there, they can live there, they can contribute there and it's vital that they have transport to access labour in our towns and cities and in areas of high industrial activity and the way we do that and the way we make rural Ireland more connected is through an enhancement of investment in rural links and the local link service. We've seen in East Galway many local link services enhanced over the past few years and they have been an absolute game changer but still many areas remain without this service and without this service it leaves people isolated and unconnected and people need to have that opportunity to avail of a local link transport, not just for the sake of transport but for the sake of connection, for the sake of community and to get rid of rural isolation we need to make sure that our elderly people can access this as well. I think another thing that needs to be considered is how we're delivering housing in rural Ireland and where there are blockages. A significant issue I see is that young people are not able to build using shared entrances onto national roads. Now that is a TII problem and it is a roads problem but it is a priority for the rural future because young people are being encouraged to go six or seven kilometres down the road, build on a boring, only to drive back and forth multiple times a day to tend to the farm at home and to be honest that's absolute madness. So we need to take a common sense practical approach to our rural planning that allows people to build close to home beside their parents so that when care needs arise in a home that the family are there to care for one another and that's something that's really really important in rural Ireland as well. In our villages there's so many villages that ultimately aren't going to ever be serviced or aren't ever going to see sewage networks but what they should see is they should not be choked because of that, they should not be stifled for development, they should be allowed to build homes and I welcome what Minister Brown is doing with the developer-led wastewater treatment systems up to 40 units. I think something like that and policies like that is what's going to allow villages to thrive, to grow and to encourage population in these villages so that there can be more services and greater support right across rural Ireland. Something that was a part of the rural future plan in the last policy was around the remote working hubs and a lot of these hubs were established but they were never given the current funding to maintain them or to employ a manager and I believe every county should have a remote working hub manager that can remotely manage all of the hubs in their county and ensure that those people keep the hubs going, make sure that they're financially viable and that they can proceed. Go raibh míle maith agat leas caeán go raibh le.