Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

It is suffering significant population decline, predominantly concentrated in the west and midlands of Ireland. That continues apace. It is calculated that in the last 40 years, 800 electoral divisions have lost population or significantly lost population. There has been a lopsided spatial policy which has put hundreds of thousands of young people into the Dublin area, in particular. The Central Statistics Office, CSO, figures state that there is increasing income inequality between the western regions, the north-western regions and the rest of the State. When will this Government's policy become more than social welfare for rural Ireland?

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