Bobby Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

By the Minister's own admission, the latest CSO figures confirm that this Government is leaving rural Ireland behind with regard to service provision. The report published last week on the distance to everyday services in Ireland makes for very sobering reading. Rural dwellers face distances to most services that are at least three times greater than those faced by their urban counterparts. The average distance rural residents must travel to supermarkets, convenience stores, pharmacies or GP clinics is approximately seven times longer than that travelled by their urban counterparts. People in rural Ireland are facing longer commutes to work while the distances they must travel to medical facilities or 24-hour Garda stations are much more pronounced than in urban areas. These statistics are alarming and show how the Government is failing to deliver public policy solutions that improve public service provision and make living in rural Ireland attractive. What is most disappointing is the fact that these figures are not surprising. Under Fine Gael, rural Ireland has been abandoned and the aforementioned figures serve to highlight this. It is clear that the Government's much-referenced action plan is not delivering. The Minister must outline the steps being taken to rectify the imbalance across the country.

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