TDs don’t care about rural Ireland. There are no votes in it
Irreverent. Irrepressible. In the corridors of power
ADUBLIN taxi driver stood on Slea Head on the Dingle Peninsula overlooking the majestic Blasket Islands. In the company of a local farmer, he turned to him and said: ‘It’s a beautiful view.’ ‘It’s beautiful view, all right,’ said the Kerryman. ‘It’s a pity you can’t ayt it.’
I’ve heard a few variations of the same story, in Dublin and Kerry. It is almost certainly apocryphal but it encapsulates the complexity of life in rural Ireland. The political establishment speaks loudly about its concerns at the slow bleed of communities. But their concern is shallow and sometimes sentimental. They wail about the flight from the land, but they do little about it.
In January, the Government launched a €60m programme to help rejuvenate rural Ireland. That’s just over €2m a county.
The 276-point Action Plan for Rural Development promises to revitalise 600 towns and villages and support 135,000 new jobs within four years.
Enda Kenny, a rural Taoiseach, patronised Ballymahon, Co. Longford, for the launch of the ludicrously bombastic plan. It had meaningless headings such as ‘Supporting Sustainable Communities’, ‘Maximising our Rural Tourism and Recreation Potential’ and ‘Improving Rural Infrastructure and Connectivity’. All it lacked was a promise of free cake. Or perhaps an offer of some coloured beads to locals, in return for a few thousand acres of land. Independent Donegal TD Thomas Pringle called the initiative ‘insincere’.
But rural Ireland’s enemy is not just the Government. There is emigration, migration and what sociologists call ‘natural decrease’, where the death rate is higher than the birth rate.
We are moving inexorably to towns and cities. Kenny will be gone soon and so, surely, will his ‘insincere’ €60m rural plan and its unachievable 135,000 jobs. Governments and the civil service want us in urban areas. We are easier to corral in cities. Transport, services, policing and recreation can be provided cheaply and with greater ease in cities.
The 2016 census showed that 6,731 people left Co. Donegal over the previous five years. In that same period, Dublin had the highest inward migration in Ireland, with 7,981 people moving to the capital. The area with the largest increase in population was Fingal, Co. Dublin. In addition, seven of the ten largest increases in population were in Dublin electoral areas, with the other three being Navan, Maynooth and Portlaoise – all Dublin commuter towns. Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford also had an increase in population.
In 1960, 54% of the population lived in rural Ireland. By 2015, 37% lived there. We are following a global trend. With 64% of the Irish population living in urban areas, we are still behind the EU average (75%) and the OECD (80%). We’re gaining fast, though – the UN Population Division expects Ireland to have 75% in urban areas by 2050.
Rural America, which encompasses nearly 75% of the land area of the US, currently accounts for about 16% of the country’s population, the lowest in its history.
In 2013, Barack Obama’s Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said: ‘Rural America, with a shrinking population, is becoming less and less relevant to the politics of this country, and we better recognise that, and we had better begin to reverse it.’ Think of the consequences of a dwindling population in a rural area. As a village or a town shrinks there is less demand for services. The pubs close, the post office shuts, the garda station closes, a school with fewer children will lose a teacher. Terminal decline sets in. The election of so many rural Independent TDs in the last election hints at some kind of countryside revolt but it isn’t. This is not a political bloc, unified around a single goal such as abolishing water charges.
Many of the ‘rural’ TDs elected concentrated on single issues that aren’t common to the rest of rural Ireland. Independent TD for Roscommon-South Leitrim Michael Fitzmaurice was elected to represent turf cutters. Turf is not a universal issue for rural Ireland. During the formation of the coalition, Independent TDs outlined their concerns: Mattie McGrath focused on health issues in Tipperary; John Halligan pushed for a cardiac unit in Waterford. Shane Ross wanted Stepaside Garda Station reopened. These are not ‘rural’ issues. They are local issues. Rural Ireland gets investment when it serves local politics.
Donegal and Mayo saw their populations fall since the 2011 census. Tellingly, they are the two major population centres that failed to secure a motorway during our highway expansion in the 2000s. In Mayo, Kenny’s legacy as Taoiseach will be that he failed to get his home county a road.
I asked him about it in Leinster House recently and he said there were difficulties in road building in Tulsk, Co. Roscommon. I could tell he was annoyed I’d raised it.
When Danny Healy-Rae pleads for special drink-driving arrangements for rural dwellers, we know we are hearing the death rattles of rural Ireland. Mr Healy-Rae is smarter than many believe. He is rightly concerned about rural isolation but this is desperation. No civilised society can tolerate drink driving. And Danny is a publican.
His brother Michael is fighting for the retention of a post office network. Michael is a postmaster.
It is not realistic to want post offices retained as some form of social hub. If post offices are to remain open, then we need viable plans. Post offices working as tourist offices, in certain areas, sounds like a good start. And how can rural Ireland compete when it has such appalling broadband internet access.
Around 71% of households have broadband access, but this varies from almost 80% in Dublin city and suburbs, to 61% in rural areas. For at least ten years, politicians have promised improved rural broadband. But there aren’t many votes in sparsely populated areas so politicians won’t waste money on them. But there is hope.
In Skibbereen, Co. Cork, a digital hub called Ludgate has been established in a former bakery and cinema. It has attracted €1m in investment, without State backing, and its 100 tenants include Pfizer, Facebook and Google. With 1000MB, it has better broadband quality than Dublin. At its launch last year, Minister for Jobs Mary Mitchell O’Connor said she wanted to see it replicated countrywide.
For the less-appealing central lowlands, agri-tourism can be marketed. Irish towns – such as Clifden, Killarney, Kinsale and Tramore – have always worked as independent fiefdoms. Tourists who want to visit the spectacular surrounding landscape use them as bases. They need State help. Golf, surfing and cycling have attracted new visitors to Ireland.
The Wild Atlantic Way has showcased the beauty of our country to the world. And may prove in time that you ayt it.