For the first time in history more than 50% of the world’s population live in urban areas while, at present, 52% of land west of the Corrib has been designated in a way which makes building a house in a rural area extremely difficult.
These comments were made by Marian Harkin MEP when she spoke on the topic ‘Creating Resilient Rural Communities at the Ceiluradh ’09 symposium organised by the Tipperary Institute in Thurles on Thursday, October 28th.
At the symposium, Marian Harkin stressed that without proper rural planning, it would be impossible to ensure sustainable rural communities. If people were unable to get planning in rural areas there could not be sustainable rural communities, she said.
Marian Harkin continued:- “In the next week I will be hosting a citizen from Co. Galway to make a case to the Petitions Committee of the EU challenging the enurement clause contained in Irish county development plans. This clause involves restrictive planning regulations which seek to make it difficult for EU citizens including Irish to locate in rural areas. Already this clause has been challenged by the European Commission which has written to the Irish government to request that changes be made to county development plans.
“These restrictions are indicative of a government policy which favours pushing people to live in the towns and villages of rural areas and restricts them from living in the open countryside. This policy is rendered ridiculous by the failure of the Government to provide the infrastructure of water and sewerage which would be necessary to absorb the increased population of towns and villages.
“Other issues of concern to rural dwellers include designations of areas such as SACs (Special Areas of Conservation). These cause, and will in the future cause, explosive situations to develop in many rural areas. Obstacles to proposals to build alternative energy projects such as those proposed by the ‘Spirit of Ireland’ development and unnecessarily restrictive measures to prevent traditional turf cutting are indicative of issues that will impact negatively on sustainable rural communities.
“Retaining sustainable communities for the future is also challenged by the recent changes in the Common Agriculture Policy which shifts resources from the first pillar – farming, to the second pillar – rural development. This has angered the producers of our food – at a time when food security is becoming a serious issue at EU level. Rural development should not have to happen at the expense of farming and its funding should be from a different budget which in size recognises the value of sustainable rural development.
“We have to be concerned at the threat to family farming and especially the smaller enterprise which is why a tooth and nail fight must be fought to maintain the Single Farm Payment into the future. This is a major battle because the overall EU budget will not be increased and current sentiment does not fully recognise the value of farming as essential to sustaining rural communities.
“Sustainable rural communities involves social sustainability including a focus on where people want to live, on support for volunteering, for carers and for institutions like Credit Unions with their not for profit ethos. There are 508 Credit Unions in Ireland, with €14 billion in assets, which did not fail the community in the recent financial upheaval and, in any future review, they must not be over regulated. Credit unions are a major voluntary movement and a vital part of the jigsaw which will help the sustainability of all communities in the years ahead.
“Volunteers and volunteering have been assessed internationally as delivering value for money. For every €1 invested, the return has been assessed between €5 and €8 and this is a massive resource to be further developed. This should include valuing voluntary effort as matching funding for projects both at national and EU levels. Volunteers are the life blood of rural communities and will be central to maintaining their sustainability in the future.
“All of us will be involved in caring in the future either as deliverers or receivers and, if we are to have sustainable rural communities, we will have to value carers much more in future. The work of family carers is often invisible and certainly undervalued. Our health service cannot function without a major input from family carers and this must be recognised in any future policy initiatives.
“Caring for older people and enabling them to live in their own communities requires significant focus by all agencies and serious attention needs to be given to expanding the template development, the St. Brendan’s Village in Mulranny, Co. Mayo, to ensure that in sustaining rural areas that the needs of the elderly are also met in full. They must be kept at the heart of sustainable communities and one way of doing this is to ensure that the recent proposal by ‘An Bord Snip’ to curtail rural transport is not reflected in future government policy”, Marian Harkin MEP concluded.
