Pressure on Government to deliver in rural areas

Today’s Rural Equality Bill vote in Dáil Eireann, and the fallout from remarks made by former Western Development Commission chairman Paddy McGuinness, will put further pressure on the Government to deliver more of its commitment to support regional and rural progress.

Dáil debates on the Rural Equality Bill 2017 moved by Sinn Féin TD for Sligo-Leitrim, Martin Kenny, have revealed deep rural dissatisfaction. However, an amendment put forward by the Government is expected to carry today’s vote.

Meanwhile, government sources have strongly refuted the statement by Paddy McGuinness that there is absolutely no commitment at either political or administrative level to balanced regional development, nor is there any worthwhile plan to address rural decline — allegations refuted last week by Minister of State for Regional Economic Development Michael Ring.

Announcing that he will not seek reappointment as Western Development Commission chairman, Mr McGuinness also said the WDC’s potential to initiate and deliver progress within the region is neither understood nor supported.

Set up in the late 1990s, the Western Development Commission was a government response to public pressure to help tackle population decline in the west.

Appointed by Taoiseach Enda Kenny in 2012, Mr McGuinness said the Programme for Government committed to an enhanced role for the WDC, but the board had not yet been told exactly what an enhanced role meant or involved.

Moving his Rural Equality Bill, Martin Kenny said rural people no longer believe that broadband will be delivered, because of the failures and repeated broken promises of the past.

He said the latest broadband proposals allow commercial service providers cherry-pick the most profitable areas.

He said a rule restricting school bus services to the nearest school has totally disrupted a system that was working fine.

Mr Kenny said some people with medical conditions have moved to live close to hospitals, due to inadequate rural ambulance services.

He said new work activation schemes do not work for rural people who have to travel long distances.

He said afforestation is destroying rural communities, covering large tracts which require no labour input bar a week or two every few years. “Rural Ireland is not an area that can be covered by forestry in order to provide some kind of green lung for western Europe,” said the Sligo-Leitrim Sinn Fein TD.

Moving a government amendment to Mr Kenny’s Bill, Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Heather Humphreys said the Government is making a concerted effort towards a better deal for rural Ireland, and to ensure rural issues are to the forefront of policy-making.

She cited the new €20m town and village renewal scheme, the largest investment in regional arts facilities in a decade, a 9% funding increase for local and regional roads, 500 extra rural social scheme places, €430m for flood relief measures, a new CCTV grant scheme to help combat rural crime, and Eir’s high speed broadband for 300,000 more premises, most of them in rural Ireland, within 90 weeks.