Dáil debates

Tuesday, 1 June 2004

7:00 pm

Photo of Éamon Ó CuívÉamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

The other reality we should face up to is that there has been a decline in rural Ireland but that decline and the haemorrhage from rural areas is a worldwide phenomenon with which we are all trying to grapple. I came here today from a European conference on rural development which I hosted in Westport over the past two days. In relative terms they accept that we are way ahead of most other European countries. Admittedly, only 43% of people are living in what are defined as rural areas but the European average is 30%, and they tell us that figure is decreasing rapidly to 20%. That is a huge challenge, and no other country has cracked it. It is my dream that this country will crack that problem ahead of others, however to change what I do not accept is an inevitability but which has been a fairly consistent trend will take patience, persistence and commitment.

One of the problems that has faced rural development since I became involved in it in 1974 is the easy equation between agriculture and rural development because rural life is about much more than agriculture, just as urban life is about much more than the industries that sustained urban areas 100 years ago. Agriculture is incredibly important to this country economically and from an employment point of view but it is a minority employer, even in the most rural areas. For that reason, the setting up of a separate Ministry for rural development, taking it out of the Department of Agriculture and Food, was a major statement that we recognised the multi-faceted nature of rural development. We are the only country in the European Union — this has been remarked upon — where the Department of rural development is not a junior adjunct of the Department of Agriculture and Food but is seen as a full Ministry in its own right. This Government made that decision.

The national spatial strategy was adopted within the lifetime of this Government. One would not expect to see the long-term effects of a 20 year plan on the ground at this stage but it sets out where we want to go in that regard. The spatial strategy is radically different because the Government changed it from the proposals made by the experts who could see nothing beyond the towns and those made by the academics who could not see any economic generation beyond the towns and cities.

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