Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Mr. Gerry Murray referred to rural Ireland and population decline. This stems from economics. The economic experts will tell us that we can provide services for 100,000 people in a very small space, but not in a widely spread rural area. That is not necessarily true because packing a population into too small a space has other consequence with which we unfortunately have to deal.

Professor Caulfield in Galway was a great supporter of the concept of retaining a population in rural Ireland. Those of us who served our time as members of local authorities know that it is becoming more and more difficult to retain the population of rural Ireland because of policies at local authority level. Again, these spring from economics. All local authorities should play a role in that respect. Once the population of a rural area dwindles, services go, whether schools, police stations, post offices or banks. It is essential that we retain an upcoming young population in rural Ireland. Modern technology, such as broadband, are required to assist in this. They can be complementary to give to people living in rural Ireland a quality of life equal to or better than that of those living in the centre of New York.