RTE is accused of rural bashing

A WEST of Ireland TD has hit out at what he described as RTE’s unfair and unbalanced coverage of climate change issues in relation to rural Ireland.

Roscommon/Galway Independent TD, Michael Fitzmaurice, said  it was ‘high time’ that a stop was put to the vilification of rural Ireland and agriculture as regards climate change issues.

He said that last week, the national broadcaster had focused on climate change with the accusing finger always pointed at rural Ireland at what it was ‘supposedly doing wrong’.

“People have to live and work in rural Ireland. It cannot be totally sacrificed for people who live within the boundary of the M50 or other large cities,” said Deputy Fitzmaurice.

He warned that if this Government was allowed to continue on its current course it will transform rural Ireland into a wilderness to act as a carbon sink for the rest of the country.

Deputy Fitzmaurice said that the new trend with Government was to ‘bow to the Green agenda’ with possibly the next thing to be proposed a cull of the national livestock herd.

“People in rural Ireland are fed up of this Government’s lack of action when it comes to losing key employers and services, with little or no effort being made to replace them.

“And then, to top it all off, they are faced with the national broadcaster continuously pointing the finger at rural Ireland when it comes to climate change – despite a lot of rural dwellers living very sustainable lives,” said Deputy Fitzmaurice.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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