I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. When I was coming in this morning, I was reflecting on this debate and what someone with an obvious city accent would say to people living in rural Ireland. However, the truth is, when you think about it - and the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach, Deputy Clarke, knows something about this as well - there is more that unites us than divides us. The same challenges exist in the town and village as in the city. It is the same failing, tone-deaf, out of touch Government that governs in the village, the town and the city. It is the same refusal to acknowledge the lived reality of people, whether they live in the town, the village, the townland or the city, that is at the root of many issues facing people. It suits the Government down to the ground to have a manufactured situation where rural dwellers are on one side and urban dwellers are on the other. It would suit the Government all the way to Sunday if that were to be the case and if people were to be taking potshots or squabbling with each other. The truth is the people who live in rural Ireland are being let down, failed and ignored by the Government every bit as much as the people who live in urban Ireland. That is a fact. We saw that on the streets of our capital city and the highways, byways and back roads of our towns and villages in recent weeks, just in case anyone in government was not listening. People were shouting loud enough, I hope, for the Government to hear. In the midst of that crisis, the Government arrived with half-measures for the town, city, townland and village. When I think about this consultation process and the way in which people have been sidelined and feel they have been ignored, I reflect on the number of reports and strategies that have been done. I put it to the Minister of State that rural Ireland does not lack reports or strategies; it lacks action from a Government that seems to be out of touch and indifferent to the lived reality of ordinary people. If a report, consultation or strategy document could change things, we would not be here. We would not be having this conversation because the change would happen but what will change things is action from the Government.

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