2026-02-05

6. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht his views on the findings of the recent report by the GAA national demographics committee; the measures his Department will implement to address issues relevant to this report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8648/26]

The Minister and the Minister of State will be very familiar with the findings of the report of the GAA's national demographic committee. As we all know, the GAA, along with the Ladies Gaelic Football Association and the Camogie Association, comprise over 2,300 clubs and they have 760,000 members. We are not just talking about sporting organisations. We all know that these clubs are a key and integral part of every community. In so many instances, they shape local community life. It is essential that the Government and the Oireachtas listen to and act on the concerns outlined in that report. Recently, the GAA made an excellent presentation to the Oireachtas housing committee. I hope the Minister and Minister of State encourage all the officials in their Department and in the agencies that come under its remit to study the transcript of that particular committee meeting. There were fabulous contributions by both members and the witnesses.

I thank the Deputy for his question. I am aware of the recent report of the GAA national demographics committee, and the presentation it made. The Deputy drew my attention to it some weeks back. The Minister of State and I engaged directly with the GAA on this issue. We met the national demographics committee last September in relation to its work and the report. We acknowledge the challenges for the GAA, but also for the communities that they serve that the report outlines, and the importance of their clubs as focal points for communities all across the country. We are aware the GAA is committed to working within rural and rural communities and at national level. I thank not just the national demographics committee, but in particular the county demographics officers around the country. Our Rural Future adopts 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, learn, work and raise families. Actions delivered under the current policy have delivered improvements in broadband provision, increased rural transport services, support for rural enterprise and ongoing support for the agrifood sector. My own Department has seen significant funding increases in recent years across a range of capital investment schemes such as the rural regeneration and development fund, the town and village renewal scheme and the outdoor recreation infrastructure scheme. This investment is delivering real impacts in rural communities all across the country. As the Deputy will be 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 strong. The GAA has engaged proactively in the 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 Departments and other key stakeholders, including the GAA, ahead of the publication of the next iteration of Our Rural Future, which will address many of the challenges outlined by the GAA demographics committee.

I welcome the Minister's response. I fully appreciate the understanding that the Minister and the Minister of State have of the concerns outlined by the GAA. In my own county of Cavan, we have had a welcome increase in population, but there is a population imbalance and demographic imbalance. The east of County Cavan is in the commuter belt of Dublin. The clubs there face pressures because of increasing numbers of participation, which is great. The belt from Castlerahan, Ballyjamesduff, Virginia, Mullagh to Bailieborough and Kingscourt has experienced huge population growth. The Minister is familiar with the geography of west Cavan. Blacklion's Shannon Gaels, Swanlinbar's club or Corlough all face particular challenges due to population decline, particularly within a certain age profile. My own club of Templeport St. Aidan's, and our neighbouring club, Corlough, have an arrangement where the players from Corlough have a deviation that they can play in competitive competitions with my own club of Templeport. They still retain their own identity, which is a very good thing. When the Minister has the opportunity to visit those clubs, he will see the excellent facilities they have. We need to put on the record that we value the work of those volunteers in ensuring sports are available for all age groups in every community.

All of us will agree that without volunteers we would not have any society, particularly the GAA, but any organisation. I always take the opportunity to ask those who give out about volunteers what they would do on a Saturday if they had no GAA, no drama, no rugby, soccer, swimming or anything to go to and if their kids did not have those outlets. They are run by volunteers. The Minister of State and I are focused on the challenge outlined by the demographics committee that we met in terms of the disparities within counties. I also raise the pressures within urban communities in our cities to get playing facilities within the city of Dublin, where the population is there but the facilities are not keeping up. In terms of Our Rural Future, we will seek to try to address that. Some of our discussion earlier was on housing. The Deputy and I have had discussions on the rural housing guidelines, the updating of which is necessary to encourage young families back into rural communities. I noted his comment about the pressure on clubs on the Meath border in Cavan. It did not seem to affect Meath at the weekend, but we will look at that.

I thank the Minister. As the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach knows, thankfully, in practically every parish in Cavan-Monaghan, we have excellent community facilities. I know that many communities in Dublin and the highly populated areas would love to have those facilities. As the Minister knows well, we have the social infrastructure in rural communities. We have community centres, schools, GAA and other sporting organisations. What we need is population. Perhaps the Minister and the Minister of State could try to continue the influence on other Departments on the need for investment in rural Ireland. We need more jobs and, as the Minister said, more young families. We have to improve in some way the availability of housing for young couples. Planning is essential, as are changes to the rural planning guidelines. Only last night, I engaged with the Minister for housing, Deputy James Browne, who fully understands the difficulties. Where we have the infrastructure, the community facilities, education, health and other social facilities, we need people. The Government must try to ensure, through every means available to it, that more and more young people are in a position to live in rural communities.

I assure the Deputy that the Department, including the Minister of State and I, and our officials, are currently engaging with our colleagues across government on what their responsibilities are in relation to the next stage of Our Rural Future. Rural affairs are not just for the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht. It is an all-of-government approach, which is very much what Our Rural Future is about. I reiterate my thanks to the GAA. Its demographics committee and demographics officers are an example. After the Minister of State and I met with the GAA, we certainly engaged with other sporting organisations with a challenge to them to give us similar reports and data. Many of them responded to that challenge. It is my intention that we will publish the next iteration of Our Rural Future ahead of the summer. We are in the final stages of negotiation; there is a question later on the level of engagement with that process, which has been significant. The challenges identified by Deputy Smith, and known to the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach, are real, not just in Cavan and Monaghan, but right across rural counties. We will seek to address those.