Protecting Rural Ireland: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-15 ============================================================ Gareth Scahill (FG), Nominated by the Taoiseach I welcome the Minister to the House. Like so many of the previous speakers, it would be disingenuous of me not to concede I agree with some of the points in the motion. However, having read the countermotion and having benefited significantly from the Our Rural Future policy in the past and looking forward to its future iterations, I note that none of the speakers so far have mentioned that budget 2026 was the largest the Department Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht has ever had. There was €611 million towards the delivery of initiatives across rural Ireland. Rather than calling on the Government, I know there is a programme for Government. There are clear timelines and targets in place across a number of areas incorporating a number of Departments. That is what we are all working towards and want to see delivered. Deputy Calleary is a rural Minister. Ideally I would have liked one of my party colleagues to be in his role but if there was to be someone else in it, a someone from a neighbouring county such as Deputy Calleary would be the ideal scenario. We have welcomed him to Roscommon on numerous occasions since he was appointed. I hope that continues and I hope we continue to see the investment from his Department in delivery in our areas. There were announcements about the national broadband plan. Certain counties already have 100% delivery. My home county is due to have 100% delivery by November. When that initial idea was proposed, people thought it was pie in the sky, that it was not possible, that it was madness and asked how much were we going to spend on it. It came in on time and under budget. It has made a significant impact across rural Ireland. The amendment to the motion states that between 2016 and 2022, there was an increase in the population of rural Ireland of 5.8%. That would not have happened without that infrastructure empowering those people and giving them the opportunity to move to a part of the country they choose because of the quality of life they could get from that. The Minister has visited many of the connected hubs. The last time he was down in Castlerea, he was in the enterprise hub. I am a member of the Kiltullagh enterprise hub. There is another remote working area in Ballinlough. The whole country has these facilities now, meaning that should we ever experience something like Storm Éowyn in 2025 again, we will have supports to allow people to continue to work remotely, provide for their families and live where they want to. Only this morning, I referred to Councillor Micheál Frain from Ballaghaderreen calling for 24-7 staffing of the Garda station in Ballaghaderreen. In the programme for Government there is no commitment to opening or staffing rural Garda stations but there is a commitment to support a visible Garda presence in our communities. There are commitments in the programme for Government to encouraging policing resources that are allocated based on operational need and to tackling rural crime. That is why I have repeatedly called for a different model of policing for rural Ireland. I do not believe one size fits all in Ireland. The Minister's county, my county and Longford are all in one big district and we have not benefited from additional Garda numbers in quite some time. Due to the geographical spread and the age demographic, we are suffering because of our low crime numbers, which is a blessing in one sense, but we cannot be complacent in that area. I will continue to call for those measures. I will continue to call for a different model but I will continue to acknowledge what is in the programme for Government and what we have committed to delivering. If things can be done better, I will suggest those and see where we can go with them. The Minister's Department administers the town and village scheme and CLÁR funding. It supports the LEADER programme and the community recognition fund. Only three weeks ago, I called for a support fund for community groups, not for capital costs but for operational costs because that is where voluntary committees tell me they are struggling. The message in the Commencement matter came back that it is something the Department is looking at. That is delivery within Our Rural Future and it is answering the call that we have for rural Ireland. It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the reference to education and healthcare in Sinn Féin's motion. With regard to healthcare, we also suffer in rural Ireland because of the distribution model of some of our ambulance services, especially in counties such as my own where we do not have an accident and emergency department. The dynamic distribution model is not fair on counties such as Roscommon, Longford and Leitrim, to name but a few, but that is something we can work with the National Ambulance Service on. We will work to try and address and deliver on that. I acknowledge within this that the creation of the technological universities was a game-changer but I also recognise the recent announcement in the Minister's home county, in Castlebar, for the college of the future and the delivery of apprenticeships. That is very important because that is relieving the pressure on the urban areas where we already have universities and large student populations. I have been an advocate in this House on one or two occasions, and maybe more, for a similar facility for Roscommon. The Minister, Deputy Lawless, is open to it. He was not open to the initial site, but he is open to that. That is something I will continue to press for. We are in a very good place. A lot has been done. I look forward to the new rural future strategy because there has been significant engagement. For the next time the Minister visits Roscommon, I draw his attention to the town teams that have been in existence in Roscommon since 2015. Some would say they have replaced the town councils but the delivery that has been achieved through the voluntary effort of these committees is something that we need to continue to support. We need to look at some sort of strategy where their voluntary hours can be seen as a contribution to the matched-funding element. That is something that was there in the past. Volunteers' time is something that we need to put a value on. I acknowledge and support the countermotion. --- 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