Protecting Rural Ireland: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-15 ============================================================ Eileen Lynch (FG), Agricultural Panel I thank the Minister for being here this evening. This is an important motion. It is vital to discuss rural Ireland and its continued and ongoing development. It deserves policies that recognise its value and invest in its future. I am from north-west Cork, which is quite rural. I see every day the strength of rural communities in Mallow, Millstreet, Macroom and the village I am from, Aghabullogue. There are many people who keep rural Ireland going, from community groups to farmers and school groups. They are the soul of rural Ireland and are breathing life into these villages. I acknowledge the launch of the Our Rural Future policy in 2021. It brought real progress in the development of rural Ireland. It brought record investment into communities, with expanded broadband and the development of more than 400 connected hubs. It has improved Local Link services, supported regional enterprise and invested in community facilities across the country. I commend the Minister on the work he is doing on community facilities as well as previous Fine Gael Ministers in that Department, including former Deputies Heather Humphreys and Michael Ring. They did fantastic work. Another village near my home, Rylane, received €1.8 million. The Minister was there for the opening of our new community centre, which will make an invaluable difference to the community. There is still work to do. We need to focus on access to housing, healthcare, childcare and transport because they are all challenges in many areas. However, I do not agree these challenges are being ignored. They are being addressed through a whole-of-government approach, rather than with piecemeal measures, and that is vital. In north-west Cork, we have seen the benefits of this investment. The completion of the Macroom bypass has transformed travel on the N22. It has improved safety and made Macroom town a much better place to be. It has improved things for businesses and residents. The continued progress on the M20 from Cork to Limerick, albeit a little slow, will be equally important in improving connectivity across the region and supporting economic growth. I welcome the initial funding granted for the N22 Macroom to Ovens route. It needs to be treated with a level of urgency. I hope the pace of progress will not be as glacial as it was with the Macroom bypass. There has been a lot of Government investment through the various schemes, including the town and village renewal scheme, CLÁR, the community centres investment fund, CCIF, and the outdoor recreation infrastructure scheme. They have supported many projects across the country in smaller communities. Remote working has also created new opportunities for rural Ireland. Better broadband, although there is still work to do on it, and connected hubs allow people to work closer to home while supporting local businesses and reducing long commutes. Recently, we saw the former Coláiste Iosagáin building in Ballyvourney being repurposed as a fantastic development hub with hot desks and meeting rooms as well as office space. It is great that the building has been brought back into use and the services it now provides will be invaluable to Gaeltacht Mhúscraí. My colleagues who have spoken have raised the matter of agriculture. This is very much at the heart of rural Ireland. Our farmers are central to our economy and to our communities and it is important that the Government continues to support family farms while helping the sector adapt to future challenges. I was at the IFA briefing today and there are challenges facing the agricultural industry when we talk about generational renewal, food security and the uncertainty of the new CAP. It is important that we continue to support our farmers who for so long were the backbone of our rural economy. I welcome the progress made under the rural safety plan, including the roll-out of local community safety partnerships. It is an area we need to focus on where we have seen increases in rural burglaries. We need to look at how we could make people feel safer in their own homes. It is not simply a matter of increasing Garda numbers, and we cannot have a Garda in every house or every area of every housing estate, but a cross-departmental approach to rural safety is required. This is something we can continue to focus on and progress. I appreciate it is not in the Minister's portfolio but I want to mention the Vintners Federation of Ireland's proposal on rural pubs and its sustainability scheme. I appreciate it is a finance issue but we are seeing many closures of rural pubs. They are community hubs as well and it is vital that the Government supports them because we are seeing so many closures in villages which now do not have places for people to meet. Many of them provide a community service and the scheme needs to be looked at in budget 2027. Looking ahead more generally to the new Our Rural Future strategy for 2026 to 2031, there was extensive public consultation, which is to be commended. Policies need to be fed into by the people they will affect and there was quite an extensive consultation period on this new policy. The record allocation of €611 million for the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht in budget 2026 shows the Government is backing its commitment with real investment. We are following through on what we said we would do. The job is not finished and there are still challenges to address. We must continue to invest in housing, healthcare, childcare, transport and further economic opportunities, but it is important to acknowledge what has been achieved. Rural Ireland is growing and investment is reaching communities. More people are choosing to live and work in rural areas. I believe the amendment recognises this progress while committing to build on it. I look forward to seeing the next phase of Our Rural Future and I hope we will continue to strengthen rural communities throughout the country. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-15/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:16+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-07-15