‘Fine Gael is the only party for rural Ireland’ - Feighan
SENATOR Frank Feighan has said that rural Ireland, after many difficult years following the recession, is fighting back and Fine Gael wants to see it reach its full potential.
“Fine Gael believes in rural Ireland and wants to see it flourish. Ten years ago, rural Ireland was a place of high unemployment, soaring emigration that had little reason for optimism.
“Today, in contrast, rural Ireland is fighting back, 77,000 jobs have been created outside of Dublin since mid-2017 and of course, we still have much more to do.
“Fine Gael is investing €1bn in job creation measures in rural areas and delivering improvements in our towns and villages with a population of less than 10,000 people. All of these measures, whether it be regeneration funding, town and village renewal, Leader grant-aid, are directly benefitting this constituency.
“The population of rural Ireland is 1.75 million and is increasing. We must cater for their needs. Making remote working is key to this as we look to improve people’s work-life balance.
“That is why the roll-out of the National Broadband Plan is critical and Fine Gael is the only party committed to this plan that will bring broadband to every, home, business and farm in the country.”
“We have seen the great success of tourism initiatives and I will be lobbying for additional funding under the Wild Atlantic Way and Hidden Heartlands initiatives to develop even more walkways, cycleways and blueways for this constituency.
“Fine Gael is the only party for rural Ireland and we will continue to bring employment, opportunity and people back to rural Ireland.”