Rural communities 'under threat'

ishmael whale

There’s a lot that could be said about this article, but the one I think needs to be particularly focussed on is apparent assumption that the alternative to development in the East is rural communities. This error gets close to the nub of the question. As the Spatial Strategy says, if there is a desire to see development move West then it will be necessary to concentrate on particular centres. Put another way, the alternative to Dublin growing is for, say, Galway to grow to half a million.

Far from there being a conflict between development of rural communities and the East, the real conflict is about the ability of small towns and rural communities to suppress parochial concerns to the benefit of their regions. Advocating restrictions on the building of one-off homes in the countryside might be a start. But this assumes that the people involved in this conference actually want better access to health facilities, transport, employment and childcare.

http://www.examiner.ie/pport/web/business/Full_Story/did-sgIv5CUQ0m7xw.asp

05/05/04
Rural communities ‘under threat’
By Ray Ryan, Agribusiness Correspondent
Portumna: Rural communities feel they are increasingly under threat from official Ireland and its policies, according to Irish Rural Link, which will discuss the issue at its annual conference in Portumna, Co Galway, tomorrow and Friday. IRL said rural communities have lost confidence in the planning system, Spatial Strategy is on life support, farm incomes and farming numbers are falling and rural hospitals and emergency services are being threatened.

Seamus Boland, national co-ordinator, said rural communities are continuing to be undermined by the lack of action and finances on the part of the national and local government and various State agencies.

He said 42% of the population live in rural areas, with 30% of these people living in areas that have a population of less than 1,500. Yet, rural communities are portrayed as dragging the rest of the country back.

“On the one hand, we are told that the current development in the east coast is not only unsustainable but that it is undesirable and that we need to ensure a regional balance,” he said. “Yet, on the other hand, we are told rural communities are equally not viable from both an economic and social point of view.

“However, despite the fact that people in rural areas pay the same taxes as those in urban areas, the reality is that rural communities do not have the same access to health facilities, transport, employment and childcare than those who live in urban areas.”

Mr Boland said the conference will begin to put communities to the fore of the rural development debate.

sceptre

He said 42% of the population live in rural areas, with 30% of these people living in areas that have a population of less than 1,500.

Woah there Nelly.

30% of the 42% live in areas that have a population of less than 1500. What definition of "rural" are they running in the first place? If you live in a town of population greater than 1500 you can hardly call that rural. Dump that idea and we've 12.6% of the population living in rural areas.

oscarBravo

Originally posted by sceptre
30% of the 42% live in areas that have a population of less than 1500. What definition of "rural" are they running in the first place? If you live in a town of population greater than 1500 you can hardly call that rural. Dump that idea and we've 12.6% of the population living in rural areas.

Tricky one. I live in Knockmore - I don't know the exact population, but I'm pretty sure it's well over 5,000. Thing is, Knockmore is an area that extends right into suburban Ballina, and encompasses a chunk of Foxford. The total area is probably in the region of 40 square miles. Knockmore village, on the other hand, has a population of less than a hundred.

Where I live is rural. Knockmore village is rural. Where are the lines drawn? How close together do the 1,500 have to live?

sceptre

That's a fair point Paul (wacky and all as it is to someone who's not been there). I'd presume that any reliable figures would (or should) rely on town boundaries where they exist with some guesswork for smaller places that don't have them. That would provide a reasonable view but as you say your case is different and it's probably not that unusual (in any case town boundaries can be pretty unrepresentative at the best of times).

Victor

It's down to "continuous urban area" - in this context Cork has a population of about 180,000 in comparision to the city proper population of 123,000 or so.

Knockmore would appear to no rate: http://www.cso.ie/census/excel%20tables/Table2.xls

Victor

Originally posted by Victor
Knockmore would appear to no rate: http://www.cso.ie/census/excel%20tables/Table2.xls

http://www.cso.ie/census/pdfs/vol1_entire.pdf page 51-52

spongebob

Rural areas near larger towns are doing well. Mucks 'Celtic Leopard ' Theory states that we have done very well, in spots !

http://www.cso.ie/census/pdfs/vol1_map1.pdf

M

ishmael whale

You couldn’t make this up.

The Mad Tailor from Quinn suggests that the EU and US will happily had us 2 billion to establish a Transatlantic University Institute in Shannon. While its not clear from her press release, from what I can make out the reason that the EU and US will do this is because they both have a close emotional interest in the keeping the Shannon stopover, protecting Ennis Hospital A&E Unit and reopening the Western Rail Corridor.

To put a sense of scale on how weird this proposal is, total expenditure on third level in Ireland is €1.5 billion p.a.

I know I’m a crank when it comes to the West of Ireland, but with this kind of stuff doing the rounds is it any wonder? Remember this proposal is not coming from some crackpot ‘www.newcityforthewest.com' kind of group. It’s a proposal from what’s meant to be our main opposition party and potentially the senior partner in an alternative government. Is anybody seeking electoral support in the West on the basis of an agenda that makes any sense?

http://www.politics.ie/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5083

Fine Gael European Election Candidate Madeleine Taylor-Quinn today (Monday) unveiled proposals to deliver a €2 billion post-graduate University Institute for the West of Ireland. Taylor Quinn was speaking at the Fine Gael Symposium on the establishment of a Transatlantic Foundation to foster closer EU-US relations. The Institute will be Taylor-Quinn’s key objective, if elected to the European Parliament. It would be the first joint EU-US multiple research centre, funded jointly by the European Union and the United States.

“The Transatlantic University Institute, based in Shannon, will help transform the Western seaboard into the Coast of Knowledge. It will be the research nerve centre where Europe and America will come together, through the combined intellects of their brightest academics, to help two great continents meet the challenges to their dominance of the globalised world.

“This strategy builds on Fine Gael’s policy of developing a Transatlantic Foundation at Shannon, to foster closer EU-US relations. It is intended that the Institute will emerge from within the Foundation. It will avoid overlap with existing Irish third level colleges by specialising within areas of EU-US interest.

“An Institute on the scale that I am proposing will require a joint EU-US investment in Shannon of approximately €2 billion. Spin-off investment to the entire West of Ireland from R&D industries and others locating here will total many billions more, and deliver several thousand jobs.

“As China and India become first team players in the global marketplace, the Institute can be the think-tank where European and American minds can work out how our two great continents can compete together. As we face the threat of terrorism, the Institute can be the place where the EU and US stop duplicating their efforts, and Institute experts draw up combined strategies. And to prevent any future transatlantic tensions, the Institute can be a leader in the field of EU-US studies, so that we can better understand each other and that which unites us.

“As a global centre of excellence, the Institute will strive to compete within the top fifty learning institutes in the world. Earnings from its €2bn endowment can generate the majority portion of its yearly income. Using this revenue, the Institute can attract academics of worldwide standing from Europe and the United States, where earning potential is far higher.” The €2bn endowment on the Institute compares to the endowments of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, which when combined, stand at some €6bn. The money will be drawn from substantial sums that the EU and the US are committing for research investment. The Irish Government will not directly fund the Institute, in order that State funding to existing institute is not compromised. The EU is at present spending €22bn on research, under the Sixth Framework, which is the Union’s main system for funding knowledge. Approximately €400 billion is being made available for civilian research throughout the EU. The Barcelona European Council has committed the Union to increase the amount it spends on research by over 50 per cent, to 3 per cent of GDP, by 2010. That was the deadline set at the EU Lisbon Council for the Union to become the most dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world. The U.S.’s willingness to spend on knowledge is also dramatic. At present, the percentage of G.D.P. the U.S. spends on research is twice that of Europe. American universities invest, on average, two to five times more per student than their European counterparts.

“The Institute will have many secondary benefits, not least to the West of Ireland. From a regional standpoint, two decades of political campaigning has convinced me that we need in the West what I might call a ‘magnet project’, to underpin all our regional infrastructure assets. If that magnet is strong enough, then Shannon Airport’s transatlantic status, our local hospital services, the Western Rail Corridor and a necessary motorway network can be secured beyond doubt. I suggest that the Institute is that strong magnet.

“The Institute will not offer undergraduate entry. This is a deliberate protective measure in the interests of sustainable regional growth. At a time when multi-national capital is going to cheaper economies, our competitive advantage in the West lies in our ability to turn out highest-calibre post-graduate workers. In the decades to come, the knowledge demands on the region will be immense, and if we can’t provide the specialised workforce, we’ll lose out.

“If elected as an MEP for the North/West Constituency on June 11, I will work tirelessly to promote the transatlantic cause. I will stand alongside Fine Gael’s partners in the European Peoples’ Party, the largest political grouping in Parliament, to make the Institute happen.

“I bring two decades of work for the West to the job. And I will use every ounce of that experience to develop the West as the Coast of Knowledge.”

sceptre

That's plain nuts with a big En.

I'd say Roger Downer out in UL dropped a tray when he heard 2 billion, UL's even more dependent on overpaying postgrad humanities students that cost next to nothing than most of the other unis. edit: They fell over themselves when an anonymous probably JP McManus donor threw them 5 million to rename the college of Business to the "Jim Kemmy School of Business". For 2 billion quid they'd happily name the whole place the Coca-Cola university and paint the place red.

(hell, for 2 billion quid (or a lot less) I'd happily change my name to Coca-Cola and paint myself red)

The Mad Tailor's a bit nuts, yeah?

spongebob

Mad , classic utterly Mad !

Scrap Saturday did a sketch AFTER the credits one morning. It was a spoof "watch the (Gulf ) war live on Sky news " ad. The following Monday, Mad rang up David Hanly on Morning Ireland to give out about RTE 'publicising' war and accepting money for the ad ........ I'm not sure if David knew it was a spoof but I think he did and got Mad fairly ranting .

Time to dig out the Scrap Saturday sketch about her and David Hanly again, in fact a whole programme on Scrap Saturday , the very next Saturday was more or less devoted to Mad ! Its where she got ' her name ' from .

It was something like

Mad "sickenin scenes of vilince on RTE 2 at 7pm yesterday"
DH "At 7PM yesterday on RTE2 Mad you woulda been watching the Road Runner"
Mad "I don't care, that poor coyote has feelins too and some of his relatives voted for me last time out in Clare"

M