Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

The Minister’s policy is completely wrong. The Government is like a rich city government, chucking a few pennies up into the air and seeing rural communities scramble around to pick up the money. It is a recipe for parish pump politics and we can see Deputies smile and smirk regarding the grants that they have been involved in doling out to people.

We need to make rural areas viable on their on basis rather than dependent on handouts from the State. That is what is happening in the country. Rural areas are depleting from their young population leaving. This is the wrong approach.

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