Departmental Budgets
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-05
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Conor D. McGuinness (SF), Waterford

I will start by agreeing with the Minister that there is definitely ambition in rural communities. There is no shortage of ambition and self-awareness within these communities but on my travels and in my engagements, I do not see the confidence the Minister speaks of because rural communities are reeling. They are reeling from the demographic crisis that has already been spoken about this morning. Indeed, Deputies from the Minister's side of the House mentioned that the GAA is very quick to point to, and has the statistics and evidence to back it up, instances where teams cannot pull sufficient players together to compete, where young people are being forced to go abroad or to larger urban areas or the cities to find housing solutions, where schools are struggling to keep children enrolled, where public services are bare on the ground and where people cannot access dentists or GP services. There is huge disillusionment in rural Ireland and if we in this Chamber are unable to acknowledge that, if we do not see and if our ears are open but we are not picking up on that, we have a difficulty. I am not filled with a huge amount of confidence a corner will be, or has been, turned. Going back to the rural development piece, we really do need to see that €10 million in additional funding being made available. I look forward to that and will be keeping a close watch on it because it is crucially important to the communities I represent.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-05/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:36+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-05