Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The rural regeneration and development fund is a “commitment of €1 billion by government to be invested in rural Ireland over the period 2019 to 2027”. Those are the Government's words. The fund was set up to develop infrastructure that may be needed to support town centre housing and commercial development. With what? There is no investment in basic infrastructure for any of this development to happen. This eliminates any hope of increasing the population in our towns and villages - no equality there. Urban areas always get a larger share of Government funding, which leads to huge discrepancies in basic infrastructure in health, transport and broadband between urban and rural - again, no equality there. I, as an elected Deputy, want similar access to resources and opportunities for the constituents of rural Ireland - again, no equality there. Is this just plain discrimination by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party and a city-based Cabinet?

From where I am standing, we in rural Ireland are not on a level playing field. The Government is anti-rural, anti-small town and village, anti-farmer-----

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