Last week, the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Heather Humphreys, spoke here on her plan for rural Ireland. I had a detailed look at the plan afterwards. If the Minister is sincere about supporting villages and country life, I call on her to consider designating a one-off business in a village, such as a pub, garage, shop or post office, as a hub for the area. Everything possible should be done to keep the designated business open. We should make a financial contribution to that business, which would be very easy to do by exempting it from rates.

Hear, hear.

It would be a very simple move. I read the whole document, which contains a lot of nice, flowery language, good intentions and many good plans to bring people back into rural Ireland and spend money on dwellings and renovate housing. However, the little post office, shop or pub is the life and soul of any village. Children are often dropped off from school, messages are left, people can buy the newspaper. It is a house for all things, as people from rural Ireland know. Such a business should be designated a village hub and be exempted from rates. While the rates are minimal in most of these places, it would show that we intend to help these little villages stay intact.

Good luck with that. During the previous Seanad, I suggested it and corresponded with the Minister. I got nowhere, however.

We will try again. I have the Senator's full support.

Try again. The Senator has my support.

Laois and Westmeath stand together on it. While he comes in for a lot of criticism, and rightly so, I welcome the fact that President Trump has launched Irish-American heritage month, which happens in March. There was much talk that he was not going to do it, which would have been a backward step for relations with Irish America. I roundly welcome it.