James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----a Minister with an interest in rural affairs. The Taoiseach is a rural Taoiseach and we should not take our eye off the ball because rural Ireland is in serious decline and action needs to be taken urgently to rectify this situation. We all hear those stories. We have seen the dreadful situation across the country whereby local government was reformed. All the least populated counties across the western seaboard lost a great number of public representatives. County Longford has had a council since the foundation of the State, with 21 members plus nine town councillors, but this has been reduced to 18. The same applies in Westmeath, Roscommon, Leitrim and elsewhere. In the interests of rural Ireland we cannot allow this situation to continue.

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