Deserted rural Ireland
Madam Editor,
The front page headline in the (Irish Independent December 15) Entitled ‘ ’Deserted Ireland’’ refers to the daily rural exodus of workers to our large cities and towns. It goes on to state that there are huge parts of our countryside deserted on a daily basis, as more and more rural based employees are forced to add approximately two hours to their working day, commuting to and from their workplace.
This is taking a heavy toll on family life, particularly for couples rearing young families. In Dublin city alone, recent census figures tell us that a third of the people in the state, spend time working or studying in our capital city on a daily basis.
While rural Ireland is deserted. Other cities like Cork, Waterford, Limerick and Galway have similar daily population growth, for work purposes. Communities along the Western seaboard from Co. Donegal to Co. Kerry are suffocating because of this huge regional imbalance. As towns like Donegal, Sligo, Carrick-on-Shannon, Long- ford, Roscommon, Ballina, Tuam, Ennis and Tralee continue to struggle to attract employment and survive. This massive regional development imbalance needs to be tackled head-on, if rural Ireland is to recover and play its part in Irish society. This means providing badly needed infrastructure and well paid jobs for its young people as a matter of the utmost urgency.
Anything else will only create a wasteland particularly west of the Shannon. One has to ask the question - is this a deliberate policy - by the power brokers in Dublin, Brussels, Paris or Berlin?. We currently have a two-tier Ireland, Dublin and the rest of the country. In rural Co. Leitrim alone at the present moment, granted planning permissions are as scarce as hens teeth.
As a new septic tank system with zero emissions costs in the region of fifty thousand euro to install. With vast swathes of land planted in the county in recent years, leaving many private dwellings surrounded by vast afforestation. This appears to be the policy for the whole of the North- West region at decision-making level.
Their also appears to be a great reluctance to support Sligo Town as a major business hub and capital of the region, in the soon to be announced Ireland 2040 national planning framework. Our political parties know all these problems exist in the countryside, but do not speak out, and defend the needs of rural residents. Is there a conspiracy of silence, among the powers that be on this issue?.
If that is the case, maybe it would be better to build a Trump-like wall around the region to corral the wild-life population.
It appears that there is a plan at EU level, to turn the West and the North-West of Ireland into a forest park and develop it into a playground, for the elite of this country and the aristocrats of the European Union.