Rural blueprint aims to breathe life into village streets

There has been a broad-based welcome for the Government’s unveiling of its plan to lure workers from cities into rural towns and villages – but with a warning that the challenge is to get the Dublin-based decision makers to see it through.

Those words of caution came from local Deputy and former Minister Denis Naughten, who acknowledged that, if delivered, it would give families a real option of living in their own home in a rural community instead of renting in Dublin city.

But he warned that the key challenge remained the implementation of the Government plan by the Dublin decision makers.

“The challenge remains those decision makers in Departments and agencies who will perceive this strategy to be an afterthought rather than a key plank of Government policy to ease the infrastructure and congestion challenges in Dublin and our other cities,” he said.

The five year strategy was launched in Croke Park by Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys, and Minister for Transport and the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin acknowledged at the launch that Ireland was heading into an era of unprecedented change – and he said rural Ireland would play a central role in our recovery from the impact of Covid-19.

“Over the course of the pandemic, we have discovered new ways of working and we have rediscovered our communities. Our Rural Future provides a framework for the development of rural areas over the next five years,” he said.

For full coverage see this week’s edition of the Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now – or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie