Check Against Delivery:
Éamon Ó Cuív T.D
Launch of the ADM Report
A Strategic Approach to Rural Repopulation
National Ploughing Championships
County Laois
25 September 2002
I would like to begin by thanking Area Development Management for inviting me to launch this timely report: "A Strategic Approach to Rural Repopulation".
Ireland has experienced a general growth in population in recent years, and this report by ADM asks important questions about why many parts of rural Ireland have not yet benefited from this trend.
The report offers some valuable solutions to what is a complex and multi-dimensional problem.
Today, I am also pleased to launch ADM's Local Development Social Inclusion Programme Report 2001.
This outlines details of work undertaken in the Programme during 2001 and includes some very interesting accounts of specific projects underway. The Local Development Social Inclusion Programme is managed by ADM on behalf of my Department and 2001 saw its first full year of implementation. The programme is funded under the National Development Plan and aims to counter disadvantage and promote equality and social and economic inclusion through the provision of funding and support to 38 Area Partnerships and 33 Community Groups operating in the Border, Midlands and West and South and East regions.
Each Partnership and Community Group prepared a Strategic Plan for the period 2001-2006 setting out how they would tackle each of the three sub-measures of the Programme
Services to the Unemployed
Community Development and
Community Based Youth Initiatives.
I read with great interest about the innovative projects that were developed and the statistics in the report are clear evidence of the achievements of the programme so far. I have no doubt that this work has helped many of the most socially excluded in our society. I wish to congratulate those in the Partnership and Community Groups and of course the staff at ADM for their work with the Local Development Programme and wish you every success for future years.
The appointment of a Cabinet Minister with responsibility for such a wide ranging brief as Community, Rural & Gaeltacht Affairs is tangible evidence of this Government's commitment not only to rural areas, but to communities in general, especially those which are disadvantaged. I believe the Taoiseach showed great foresight in making the decision to shake things up a bit and create a department whose main focus is people and community. It is a decision that, I am convinced, raises the issue of development in rural areas to a higher priority on the social, economic and political agenda. For that reason, rural development can truly be said to be at the heart of Government. It also enjoins with this the problems of social segregation and deprivation often associated with rapid urban agglomeration.
This report "A Strategic Approach to Rural Repopulation" is a useful addition to the literature about the social and economic conditions of rural areas and I welcome it wholeheartedly. I am pleased that it acknowledges the important role that the White Paper on rural Development, LEADER and, of course, the CLÁR programme, which I launched last year, play in rural policy initiatives.
As you might be aware CLÁR is a programme designed specifically to address rural areas of special disadvantage. The 16 areas selected for inclusion in the programme are those which have suffered the greatest depopulation since 1926 - with the exception of the Cooley peninsula (which has been included based on the serious difficulties caused for that area by Foot and Mouth disease). The average population loss in all these areas is 50% and the total population that will benefit from the programme is 284,000. An extra, dedicated budget of €12.7million per annum has been allocated to ensure the success of the programme in 2002 and 2003.
The priorities that I have identified in the selected areas are dealt with in 3 modules. They are Local Authorities, Industry and Enterprise and Health, Education and Community. CLÁR provides co-funding, when agreed with the lead Department or State Agency, for priority projects in the following areas: Non-National Roads, Group Water and Sewerage Schemes, Urban and Village Enhancement, Bi-lingual Signage Scheme, Sports Capital Grants, Telecommunication Projects and the Islands.
The implementation of CLÁR makes it clear that this Government is fully committed to the development and prosperity of rural areas. We are, of course, committed to the balanced development of Ireland as a whole. I developed the CLÁR programme in a major push to ensure that all rural areas with a rapidly declining population will benefit from increased funding. Having earmarked this increased funding, we must all now work together to ensure that CLÁR does make a difference and that these areas do catch up.
As is indicated in the Agreed Programme for Government, we will continue the CLÁR programme and, in light of the preliminary results of the 2002 Census, a review will be carried out to consider additional areas for inclusion.
The way forward set out in this report deserves careful consideration by all those who have a vested interest in the well being of rural areas. As indicateded in the report
national policy is now emerging and will be seen in the National Spatial Strategy, due shortly. I think it is already well known that the planning framework in the Strategy will be a 20-year one. So we are talking about the kind of Ireland we bequeath to the next generation. It is important that we get it right.
The Government is determined that the focus of the National Spatial Strategy will be on people, places and community. In that, it must be about effecting a better quality of life. I am confident it will do this by providing us with a planning framework for a better balance of social, economic and physical development and population growth between regions. The preliminary results of the 2002 Census, published recently, point up the need to follow this course. Those results show an 8% increase in population over the past 6 years. I note that the increase in both the BMW and the S&E Regions was roughly the same- 7.7% and 8.2% respectively.
If anything, my new brief as Minister of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs reinforces my long-term commitment to addressing the needs of people. It was that which prompted my comments over the past year or so in relation to rural housing. It was that which brought me to Connemara in the first place.
We have to accept that rural Ireland is changing in a dramatic and irreversible way. Most rural people no longer earn the greater part of their income from farming, particularly in areas of poor land. Like urban areas, the pattern of occupation and employment has shifted rapidly. Only by increased development and diversification will our schools, post-offices, banks, shops, sports clubs etc. stay alive.
I believe that if we, the people involved in rural development, do our job properly, we can create a society in which people have an option to live and work in rural areas instead of in the rapidly expanding towns and cities, the sprawling suburbs and commuter belts. We have to start offering other alternatives, innovative solutions that strike a twin blow; on the one hand dealing with the present problems of city living and too rapid growth and, on the other, revitalising our struggling rural communities.
Rural living is a mindset. The age-old, good-natured sparring between the so-called rural/urban divide is there for a reason - it points to an acceptance on both sides that life on either side of the divide is different. There's no getting away from that fact. Most of us who choose to live in rural Ireland feel that the priceless commodities of our way of life, particularly for the youn, are:
Better social integration and interaction
High participation in sports and community activities
Relative freedom from major drug problems
High numbers of young people who go on to 3rd level education.
For anybody involved in planning the future, they must not only take physical considerations into account but also the need to build a society where people feel they belong. To those who dismiss the importance of these concepts in creating a good society, I would ask them to think again. What I wish to see is the building and strengthening of structures that have served this country well over the centuries, and that, even in the Ireland of today, play a very important part in the lives of the ordinary people.
I would like to acknowledge the initiative that ADM have shown by publishing these two reports and I commend everyone involved in their production.
END
Thu, 10 Oct 2002 00:00:00 BST