Small businesses in rural Ireland have been haemorrhaging since Fine Gael came to power. Not only have Government policies failed to support rural economies, an anti-rural sentiment has emerged from its cosy relationship with Fianna Fáil, resulting in a sweeping tide of depopulation and rural retreat, devastating counties like my constituency of Donegal. Thanks to this anti-rural sentiment, post offices, Garda stations, GPs and bank facilities are retreating from towns across rural Ireland. This has had a devastating impact on businesses struggling with new and existing challenges arising from the recession, which in turn devastated local communities. I am not talking about businesses ready to export or IDA Ireland-sponsored companies but local coffee shops, hairdressers, butchers, furniture shops and newsagents, businesses that will never be primed for export. These are the businesses that are largely left outside Government supports, yet they are the drivers of local economic growth, creating sustainable local employment across rural communities and helping to maintain rural populations as a result.

Measuring the health of this sector gives an indication of the overall health of the national economy. For this reason, I carried out a survey of small businesses across Donegal and received more than 100 responses. The results were striking and confirmed our deeply held suspicions of current Government policy, which is simply that Fine Gael does not care about rural Ireland. Over 80% of the businesses I polled were concerned about depopulation and the effects that the retreat of rural services will have on their businesses. I raised this with the Minister with responsibility for small business only to be told that endless amounts of money was being poured into tourism development. While support for tourism is most welcome, it fails to target the catalyst for rural economic growth which is local trade. My survey showed that nearly 80% of small businesses rely on local trade while only 13% rely on tourism. I ask the Taoiseach not to quote the unemployment figures for me and tell me they have dropped in Donegal because the Minister did that. It is emigration that has reduced the unemployment figures in Donegal, not economic growth.

The message could not be clearer. Small businesses survive when local businesses are thriving, but the Government's policies have ensured that depopulation continues to be the trend, undermining local trade as much as it is undermining the sustainability of rural towns and villages across the country. Before he spells out a list of what the Government has done for rural Ireland, will the Taoiseach tell me exactly how he intends to curb depopulation, increase local trade and provide real and substantial supports for small businesses across rural Ireland?

I appreciate that unemployment falls for many different reasons but I do not think it is correct to say unemployment is down in Donegal as a consequence of emigration because, based on the census, the population in Donegal is up. If I can dig the figures out from the folder showing the number of people in employment in Donegal, I will give them to the Deputy. I am sure the number of people in employment in Donegal has increased in recent years.

The Government and I acknowledge the very important and vital role of small business in all parts of our country, particularly in rural areas, when it comes to creating jobs and generating important tax revenues we use to build a better society. I will give some examples of the kinds of things the Government is doing. We reduced the VAT rate from 13.5% to 9%, which was of particular benefit to small businesses such as those in the service industry and hospitality, for example, restaurants, hairdressers and barber shops, all owned and run by the same people. There are many people in this House, especially among the parties of the left, who want to reverse it and increase the rate by 4.5%. It would be a mistake and doing it in one fell swoop would do real harm to small business and to employment, particularly in rural areas.

We have seen huge investment in tourism and the Deputy knows, as well as I do, the extent to which Donegal has benefited from the tourism boom, with record numbers of people coming to visit Ireland to enjoy what we have to offer in terms of tourism. In many cases they go to attractions which have been greatly enhanced and improved by Government capital investment. I refer to places such as Sliabh Liag, which is every bit as beautiful and wonderful as the Cliffs of Moher and where we invested to improve access so that more people can visit and enjoy it. There have been particular supports around the local enterprise offices, which were established in years gone by and, as was acknowledged by a Deputy opposite, have been responsible for creating many jobs in Roscommon. I am sure they do the same in Donegal.

Project Ireland 2040 is also coming and enormous investment will flow from that programme into rural areas, in housing, healthcare, broadband and schools. Of particular benefit to rural areas will be the investment in the regional road network, which is very much in need of improvement. The A5-N2 project will soon start to connect the northern part of Donegal to Northern Ireland and the Border counties and Dublin and is a vital infrastructure project to which I am very committed.

Investment in broadband is also vital. When this Government of Fine Gael, the Independent Alliance and Independents came to office, only 57% of premises in the country had access to high-speed broadband, but by the end of this year it will be close to 80%, which will rise to 100% in the years ahead when we sign the broadband contract.

The Taoiseach did not mention any of the things the businesses in Donegal mentioned, which include the closure of post offices and the closure of Garda stations, that is, the things that are having an impact on their businesses. The Taoiseach spoke about the reduced VAT rate which has been in existence throughout the lifetime of the decline of rural Ireland but has had zero impact on it. Local businesses are struggling and they are dying on their feet because people are being sucked out of rural areas. Unless we deal with that, we will have empty rural areas and there will be nobody to avail of the VAT reductions to which the Taoiseach refers.

Over 80% of the people I surveyed said they had not heard of any Government initiatives. Small businesses struggling to keep open have not heard of any response from the Government. Many of them say they have never been asked about these things, which I found startling. Given that Fine Gael is the so-called party of small business, I would have thought it would have asked them what would work for them, but maybe they do not want to hear the answers, which are to keep the shops open, keep the Garda stations open, keep the post offices open and keep the rural areas vibrant and alive.

I am glad the Deputy acknowledges that Fine Gael is the party of small business because it is.

I welcome that acknowledgment. I can guarantee the Deputy that public representatives listen to those engaged in business all the time. There is not a single Deputy or Senator in the Houses who has not spent time or does not engage, perhaps several times a year, with his or her local chamber of commerce.

I have been provided with the figures for County Donegal. There are 58,353 people in employment, which represents an increase of 9.5% since 2011. There has been an increase of almost 10% in the number at work in County Donegal since 2011.

The population has decreased.

We know of many examples of big investments happening in the country. They include, for example, Abbott in Donegal town and Pramerica in Letterkenny which at this stage must employ more than 1,000 people. We will see more of such investments. Project Ireland 2040 and the national planning framework, which is associated with it provide for population growth of 75% outside the greater Dublin region. In particular, they identify major growth centres, one of which is Letterkenny working with Derry.