Ireland

Fuel costs damaging rural way of life, conference told

THE RISING cost of fuel is heavily affecting social and sporting events in rural Ireland and making travelling to work no longer…

SEÁN Mac CONNELL
Agriculture Correspondent
Fri May 16 2008 - 01:00

THE RISING cost of fuel is heavily affecting social and sporting events in rural Ireland and making travelling to work no longer financially viable for some, a conference on rural development has been told.

Séamus Boland, the chief executive of Irish Rural Link organisation, which lobbies for sustainable rural communities, said the legacy of underinvestment in rural transport meant rural households drive their cars 50 per cent more than urban households.

“One recent study of a rural local authority area found that only 2 per cent of rural dwellers there used public transport to get to work. In a time of high and rising fuel prices and rising carbon emissions, this is simply not sustainable,” he said.

“Many community, social or sporting groups in rural areas are telling us that for the first time transport costs are being mentioned as a reason not to attend events,” he told the opening of the conference yesterday in Charleville, Co Cork.

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“Similarly, we are hearing from groups who work with low-income rural families that increased transport costs have meant that taking up employment or even continuing in employment is no longer financially viable for some people. Transport poverty is emerging as a significant issue in many rural communities.

“It is imperative that Minister [for Transport Noel] Dempsey, along with his Government colleagues in the Department of Rural Affairs and the Department of the Environment, initiate a review of Transport 21 to ensure that transport poverty does not develop into a crisis in rural Ireland.”

Mr Boland added that when Transport 21 was launched in 2006, crude oil prices were 2½ times lower than today and funding for rural transport was allocated on the basis that only a small minority of rural dwellers could not afford a car. That assumption had been rapidly overtaken by rising oil prices, he said.

While the rural transport programme targeted the most marginalised in rural society, Mr Boland said the vast majority of rural dwellers could not use public transport to access day-to-day activities.