Fianna Fáil had "delivered" on balanced regional development, on the right of rural people to build housing in their communities, and the decentralisation of public servants, the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Mr Eamon Ó Cuív, told the ardfheis.
In a discussion on rural development he said Fianna Fáil aimed to retain as many families as practicable on the land.
He praised Mr Cullen's new guidelines on one-off rural housing, saying the party had "rejected out of hand those people who would destroy centuries and millenniums of history at the stroke of a pen for some imported view of planning".
But he said that while he had been clearly identified over the years with rural Ireland, "I want to make it absolutely clear that the greatest challenge my Department faces is not in rural Ireland. It is in trying to improve the lives of the people living in deprived urban communities."
Over-rapid urbanisation and unbalanced regional development were creating new areas of social deprivation, he said.