Brendan Smith urges action on GAA demographics and rural clubs

I know that both Minister Derek Leary and Minister Gerry Butamore are very familiar with the findings of the report of the GAA's National Demographics Committee. As we all know, the GAA, along with the Ladies Gaelic Football Association, comprise over 2,300 clubs and they have 760,000 members. So we are not just talking here about sporting organisations. We all know these clubs are a key and integral part of every community and in so many instances they shape local community life. So it is essential that Government and the Oireachtas listen to and act on the concerns outlined in that report. Could I just say that very recently the GAA made a presentation to the Housing Committee of the Oireachtas. It was an excellent presentation and I would hope that both Ministers would encourage all the officials in their department and in the agencies that come under the remit of their department to study the transcript of that particular committee. Thank you, Deputy. There were fabulous contributions by both Members and the witnesses. Minister. Thank you, Chair, and I thank Deputy Smith for his question. I am very much aware both of the recent report of the GAA National Demographics Committee and the presentation they made. You drew my attention to it some weeks back. And both Minister and both of them I engaged directly with the GAA on the issue. We met the GAA National Demographics Committee last September in relation to their work and their report. We very much acknowledge the challenge for the GAA, but also for the communities that they serve that their report outlines the importance of GAA clubs as focal points for communities across the country. We are aware that the GAA is committed to working within rural and national communities at national level. I thank not just their national demographics committee, but in particular their county demographic officers around the country. Our rural future is adopting a whole-of-government approach, which will contain a wide range of measures aimed at ensuring that all rural areas are attractive for people to live, to learn, to work and to raise families. Actions delivered on the current policy have delivered significant improvement in broadband provision, increased rural transport services, support for rural and enterprise and ongoing support for the agri-food sector. My own department has seen significant funding increases in recent years across a range of capital investment schemes, such as the Rural Regeneration Development Fund, Town and Village Renewal and the Outdoor Recreation and Infrastructure Scheme. This investment is delivering real impact on rural communities across the country. As deputies aware, we are currently revising our rural future, and the process of developing this is well advanced. My department undertook an extensive range of consultation to help shape the new policy. Many of the issues relating to attracting and retaining young people and their families in rural areas featured very strongly. The GA have engaged proactively in our most recent call for written submissions. All such submissions received will feed into the development of the new policy. We will continue to engage with our government departments and other key stakeholders, including the GA, ahead of the publication of the next eliteration of our rural future, which will address many of the challenges outlined by the GA Demographics Committee. Thank you, Cairley, and I very much welcome Minister Killeri's response, and I fully appreciate the understanding that both Minister Killeri and Minister Buttermore have of the concerns outlined by the GA. You take an example, Minister, of my own County of Cavern. We have had, unfortunately, a welcoming increase in population, but there is a population imbalance, there is a demographic imbalance. If you go to the east of County Cavern, which is in the commuter belt of Dublin, the clubs there face pressures because of increasing numbers of participation, which is great. Take the belt across from Castle Rahan, Ballyjumstuff, Virginia, Muller, to Baileyborough, Kingscourt. They have experienced huge population growth. Go, Minister, you are familiar with the geography of West Cavern. Go to Black Lion, Shannon Gales, go to Swan and Bar, their club, go to Corolla, their club. They all face particular challenges due to population decline, and particularly population decline within a certain age profile. My own club of Templeport, St Aidan's, and our neighbouring club, Corolla, have an arrangement where the players from Corolla have a deviation that they can play in competitive competitions with my own club of Templeport, and they still retain their own identity, which is a very good thing. But could I just say, when you have the opportunity to visit those clubs, Minister, you will see the excellent facilities they have. Thank you, Deputy. I think we need to put on the record here that we value the work of those volunteers in ensuring sports are available for all age groups in every community. Absolutely, Deputy. I think all of us would agree that without volunteers, we wouldn't have any society, and particularly the GA, but any organisation. And I say, I always take the opportunity to say to those who give out about volunteers, what would you do on a Saturday if you had no GA, if you had no drama, if you had no rugby, no soccer, no swimming, no anything to go, and if your kids didn't have those outlets, they're run by volunteers. We're very much focused on the Demographics Committee that we met, Minister Boderman and I, we're very much focused on that challenge in terms of the disparities within counties. Also, the pressures within urban communities in our cities to get playing facilities within the city of Dublin, where the population is there, the facilities are not peeping up. And particularly in terms of our rural future, we seek to try and address that in some of our discussion earlier around housing. I know you and I have had discussions around the rural housing guidelines, which are absolutely necessary that we update to encourage young families back into rural communities. I noticed your comment about the pressure on clubs on the Mead border in Cavern, it didn't seem to affect Mead at the weekend, but good luck at that. Deputy, to finish off. Thank you very much, Minister. As the Coherlock knows, thankfully, in practically every parish in Cavernman, we have excellent community facilities, and I know that many communities in Dublin and the highly populated areas would love to have those facilities. Minister, as you know well, we have the social infrastructure in rural communities, we have community centres, we have schools, we have GA and other sporting organisations. What we need is population. And perhaps, Minister, you and Minister Buttermore could try to continually influence other departments on the need for investment in rural Ireland. We need more jobs. And again, you said we need more young families. We have to improve some way the availability of housing for young couples. Planning is essential. Changes to the rural planning guidelines. And only last night I engaged with Minister James Brown. He fully understands the difficulties. But where we have the infrastructure, where we have the community facilities, where we have the education, health and other social facilities, what we need are people. And government must ensure, through every means available to them, to try to ensure that more and more young people are in a position to live in rural communities. Thank you, Minister. I can assure the Deputy that we are currently engaging as a department with our colleagues across government, both Minister Buttermore and I, and our officials, in relation to the next stage of our rural future. And what their responsibilities are, the rural affairs are not just the Department of Rural Community Development, it's an all-of-government approach, and that's very much what our rural future is about. I do want to reiterate my thanks to the GA, their Demographic Committee, and their Demographic Officers are an example. And when we, both Minister Buttermore and I met with them, we certainly engaged with other sporting organisations, with a challenge to them to give us similar kind of reports and similar kind of data, and many of them responded to that challenge. But it is my intention that we will publish the next initiation of my rural future, ahead of the summer. We're in the final stages of negotiation. We have a question later in terms of the level of engagement with that process. It has been very significant, but the challenges identified by Deputy Smith, and known to you, Coherock, are real, not just in Cavanagh and Monaghan, but right across rural counties, and we will seek to address those. Thank you.