Mr. James Claffey:

Irish Rural Link is the national network of rural community groups representing over 600 community groups and thousands of individuals committed to socially, environmentally and economically sustainable rural communities. Irish Rural Link has fully accepted the gravity of the crisis facing the Government but believes rural communities have borne a disproportionate weight of recent budgetary decisions including carbon taxes, community sector cutbacks and reduced regional investment.

We welcome the Government’s success in maintaining the steady improvement of Ireland’s finances and in particular its work in restructuring the huge national debt.

We also urge the Government to recognise the huge sacrifices being made by people because of the austerity now in place for five years, and strongly recommend that this budget stimulates the economy so that employment can begin to increase and families can lessen the hardship.

We believe that under the IMF-EU-ECB bailout the Government has choices. We note that the IMF representatives clearly stated that the Government must not unduly disadvantage people who are vulnerable or communities that are struggling to maintain structures necessary to be sustainable. It is also noteworthy that the IMF has made it clear that austerity as it is implemented affecting the most vulnerable is not a sustainable policy in terms of restoring the national economy.

Rural people still cannot access a rural transport service or take advantage of free travel entitlements. Much the same can be said about amenities such as libraries and swimming pools. The potential for rural school amalgamations with no consideration of the community impacts or the cost of transport, and the possibility of further Garda station closures, is worrying for most rural communities.

In the past year, families in rural areas are experiencing a raft of financial hardships in terms of care based services, rising fuel costs, cuts to school transport, and Garda station and post office closures. The downturn has also affected families' access to reasonable financial services. That is highlighted by the disappearance of bank branches and the increased tightening of regulations governing credit unions. The latter experience is forcing many families in extreme poverty to depend on moneylenders, whose charges are punitive.

The lack of any functioning overall strategy to inform Government policy on rural development is completely disadvantaging rural communities. The demise of the White Paper on Rural Development, coupled with the ending of the national spatial strategy, has meant that there is no overarching strategy that can inform all Departments on rural policies. National policies are then rolled out without any analysis of the unintended consequences for rural areas.

While Irish Rural Link welcomes the launch of the Commission for the Economic Development of Rural Areas, CEDRA, report, we still await its implementation but we regard the appointment of the Minister of State, Deputy Ann Phelan, as a positive step towards the implementation of its recommendations.