Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I thank all the Senators who contributed. There are major challenges to be faced in rural areas. There are some issues over which we have no control. For example, we have no control over world agricultural policy. We have an input into but no direct control over the European agricultural policy. It increasingly takes more land for farmers to earn an average industrial wage. The challenge, therefore, is that we want to maintain as many people in full-time and part-time agriculture as we can. That will mean considering new systems of agriculture and new products. However, that alone will not be enough to sustain rural areas.

The major challenge is to diversify the rural economy so that part-time farming is a real option in terms of the way forward for some. Large, non-farming communities in rural areas make a contribution to rural society. I live in the heart of rural Ireland and if I was to exclude the non-farmers in the area, there would not be much left in the way of social life in terms of local football teams, schools, etc. All I can hope is that we all meet this challenge. As Minister with responsibility for rural development, I will try to be as inventive as possible in tackling the major challenges that all western societies face. On a global scale, we could say that every society has for a long time been trying to meet the challenge of increasing numbers of people moving from rural living to urban living. I hope we become the country that eventually stabilises the rural population and, if we do, we will certainly be the first.