State cuts will trigger mass emigration in next 20 years

Date Published: 07-Nov-2012

Savage cuts to rural communities across County Galway will result in massive migration over the next two decades leaving country areas with just a skeleton population.

It will result in massive pub closures while half of the current number of hurling and football clubs across County Galway will cease to exist.

The grim prediction has been made by a former government minister who says that the closures of rural banks and post offices, the closure of rural Garda stations and the withdrawal of grants for rural schemes will have a devastating effect over the coming years.

These added to the forced amalgamations of rural schools, cuts to rural transport and huge reductions in community health services will conspire to drive people out of country areas into larger centres of population – or else emigrate altogether.

It paints a picture of thousands of dwellings and business premises across rural Galway being abandoned by their owners in the wake of ongoing cuts in services.

According to Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív, he believed that there was a concerted campaign to downgrade country areas and believed that in 20 years time the face of rural Galway would be irreparably changed.

“In 20 years time we will have half the number of GAA clubs in County Galway because the people simply won’t be there to fill teams. Even the rural pub will become a thing of the past”, he predicted.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.