I welcome that the Minister undertook public consultation to further inform the development of the next rural development policy. It is important to view our rural communities. What matters most for rural communities is that the people in them are considered. I also welcome the fact that the consultation was done online. The latter is very important in order that everybody in the communities can have their say, particularly those with disabilities. It is important that their voices are heard, that the voices of young people are heard and that there is Government collaboration on this. I hope that many more consultations will be done in this way. That is very important because it will provide a great opportunity to inform future decisions relating to rural Ireland. As someone who lives in rural Ireland, it is evident to me that the Government has fallen significantly short in providing the infrastructure resources and investment needed to support and develop our communities. As a result, those who live in these communities are unfairly left to pay the price for Government neglect. The lack of significant investment is reflected in many aspects of our daily lives, from limited public transport to poor broadband. There are towns in Donegal that only received access to fibre broadband as recently as yesterday. We are informed about this all the time, and we are so far behind everyone else. We are a decade behind Dublin. As well as inadequate access to healthcare, education and employment opportunities are limited. These structural disadvantages have led to a severe population decline in our rural communities. Stagnation in growth is part of this. We wonder why people in rural communities are forced to take to the streets when there is something like a price hike in fuel. It comes down to the fact that it is their source of heating. If they have to pay double what they had to pay a few months ago, they will protest. People are forced to travel long distances to access essential such as healthcare, work and school. There are fewer employment opportunities and most of them are lower paid in nature. Rural areas in Donegal have the second lowest disposable income per person in the country, at €24,686. That is 18% lower than the national average. Our Rural Future seems to do very little to address any of these issues, which are absolutely massive. That there is nothing more in the Government policy document feels like a hollow, empty promise. There needs to be some form of implementation of these policies. I hope that future documents will be more realistic and more reflective of areas such as Donegal. Without meaningful sustainable investment, the gap between rural areas and others will widen. The Government must act and implement fairer policies.

Sentiment score: 0.02