Dara Calleary: Rural Future Needs Measurable Action

Thank you very much, Comhairle, and I'd like to welcome you to today's meeting. And although we can't be here right now, I'd like to say that everyone has a right to be here so that we can create a better future for your country and the future of Ireland. It's right, and it's fair, that everyone has a right to their country, to their nation, to their country of origin, to their country of origin. And to all of us, to our nation as a whole. And there's a great opportunity here for everyone to take advantage of that opportunity. I'd like to thank every deputy. While we may disagree on many of the items, I think there was passion and pride in the debate today. But I want to also join with Deputy Michael Collins and indeed Senator Margaret Murphy from earlier in paying tribute today, Councillor Joe Carroll. There's been many tributes to him for his passion. I think Deputy Collins summed him up wonderfully, a joyful character. But he brought passion to politics and to people. And I extend my deepest sympathies to his wife, Sheila, and his family on his very, very untimely passing. There were a number of key issues around infrastructure and around services. I just want to touch on some of them. Many people raised post offices. You know, again, through our rural future, we have provided the funds to the Department of Communications for rural post offices in particular, to assist them. It is one of the challenges as we invest in the National Broadband Scheme, and the National Broadband Scheme is rolling out ahead of schedule, that we are giving people more access to online services. So that means we have to ensure that there are subsidies available for services such as post offices. Well, many deputies have spoken about the withdrawal of post offices, of car decisions, and of banks, for instance. And that is something that we need to look at, to ensure that there are facilities within rural villages and rural towns to get that footfall. Again, there's been a lot of talk about housing, and particularly the proposal by Deputy Mark Wall around service sites and Deputy Timmons in rural areas and rural communities. And Deputy Martin Kenney's point around DEDs and the population of DEDs is something I will reflect on, combined with the proposals in relation to service sites in areas. Minister James Brown is committed to rural housing guidelines, and many of the issues that are being discussed across the House are shared in the terms of people who need access to rural areas, families who want to return. And again, indeed, Deputy Timmons made the comment about families wanting to come back into rural areas, and it being held against them that they may have property in urban areas. And I'm certainly committed to working with Minister Brown on that. Deputy McGuinness called earlier for targeted supports to the Gaeildacht and Fir Islands, and I've introduced that. I've introduced extra supports in terms of RODF, in terms of town and village, in terms of CLOR, specifically for Gaeildacht areas, but also Fir Islands. We're working, and we would have been at the Caudal AGM last week, only for it to be postponed, unfortunately, trying to address the challenges that we face there. I also want to see skills, particularly into our islands. We have the services on the islands, and that's why, for instance, we have worked with technology in relation to healthcare, and I really commend the work underway at the University of Galway around that space, how we can bring remote healthcare to islands by using technology, and there's some very good work there. Both you, Deputy McGuinness, and Deputy McLaughlin have spoken to our fishing communities, and I've asked Deputy McLaughlin in particular to provide me the information in relation to the Faroe Islands, and I certainly want to see how we can do that. And I will come back to deputies. A number of deputies have raised, Deputy Conway-Walsh, I know as well, in relation to seaweed and seaweed harvesting. It is a traditional industry that we need to respect and we need to regard. Many deputies have raised challenges in relation to Rural Link and Local Link, but equally, we have to acknowledge the massive transformation that has been made in Local Link in the last number of years, and we've seen that in Mayo, led by Sarah Toher and her fantastic board, the transformation of the service. Yes, we need to continue the investment, and a number of areas have been challenged around that. My colleague, Deputy Ryan O'Mara, raised about community cafes and community services, and that is something, certainly, that I will seek to support in the new Rural Future. The community cafe model is fantastic, and it shows in many deputies' spoken today about volunteers. And the point I make always, parents, and young parents particularly, get very busy running and doing the runs, and being in 10 places at the one time for the same training. But can you imagine if there was no trainers? Can you imagine if there was no local committee to do the training? Can you imagine if there was nobody to give the drama classes? Life would be a lot more complicated then, if you had to entertain the kids yourselves. That volunteer spirit is what keeps Rural Ireland going. And Deputy Roach and a number of deputies referred to what we call the bureaucracy burden that we unintentionally place on volunteers, and that's something I'm committed to addressing. We've made changes to CCIF. Leader is one that comes back a lot as having a major bureaucracy element to it, and it does because it's co-funded. But we have to make sure that the form-fitting and the necessary information isn't frightening people off, and that's something we're very much committed to. There are a lot of issues around businesses in rural areas, and we face a major challenge. As we go online and become more online, we have to try and protect businesses and base businesses in rural areas, and that's something I'm certainly open to ideas on and to proposals on as to how we can do that. And if we can do that whilst there is a generation who never may walk into a shop, but we have to give them a reason to use a town and use a village and a reason to go to that town and that village, be that for schools, be that for community events, be that for sport or be that for the activities I referred to earlier. Then that's why we invest in infrastructure. That's why we invest in community infrastructure in order to do that. So I just want to thank Alaskan Corridor, all the deputies for their contributions. We did, including your own, we have taken that on board and we will incorporate it into our rural future. But equally, there's a job on all of us to drive this on and to drive this debate on both within our own groups and our own parties, but also to actually deliver changes that support rural communities. And that's something that we very much want to lead on. We have, and many deputies have referred to, there is no need to divide our country. At a time of such division internationally, there's no need to divide this country between urban and rural. Urban areas need rural communities and vice versa. The West Coast of Ireland is providing some leading healthcare and pharmaceutical and health technology, providing services and treatments around the world from rural brains and from rural sense of enterprise. The kind of enterprise, the kind of mehal, I speak at this all over the country and I'm struck. It must be a Mayo thing, mehal. But then the fact that people don't seem to realise that the work that volunteers do coming together in common purpose is mehal. That happens everywhere around the country, but that is driven from within rural communities. And it is driven from the passion of rural communities, a passion at Aiskin Curair that was very much in evidence here today. So, we want to make sure that everyone can take part in this debate today. It was a pleasure. We are waiting for the new policy to be released in a few weeks. And we are very much looking forward to that policy to make people aware. Very much looking to the new draft. But most importantly, most importantly, it won't be the policy is the important thing, it's the action plan that will go with it. Measurable actions, ambitious actions, actions that I will have no difficulty, as long as I'm a minister in this department, reporting back on. And finally, I conclude by thanking all of the officials in my department who work incredibly hard in this space, but especially by thanking each and every person across rural Ireland that volunteers in any format, in any organisation, in any club to make our rural community stronger, more vibrant, more welcoming and more active. From me to Margaret Baskerville.