Francis O'Brien (Fianna Fail)

My own area of Latton in mid-Monaghan and the neighbouring areas of Carrickatee and Tullycorbet have derived considerable advantages from the CLÁR programme of support measures introduced by the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. A great part of the rural localities of counties Monaghan and Cavan could be put forward as a template of the type of area the CLÁR programme was designed to benefit. The trend of depopulation has caused the rural landscape of the constituency to undergo an inevitable and sad decline. When the numbers living in an area are reduced, it is not long before its economic health begins to suffer and the provision of transport infrastructure and other services to such an area becomes difficult to sustain.