Regeneration of rural areas sought

Up to 70,000 new jobs will have to be created in rural towns and villages between now and 2005 to maintain the viability of local communities, it has been forecast. The jobs are needed to replace those being lost in agriculture as more people give up smallholdings and move to cities to work.

According to Dr Tony Crooks, chief executive of Area Development Management, in his paper "Social Inclusion: a Focus for Rural Development Post-2000", new ways will have to be developed for people to earn their living in rural neighbourhoods. One third of the rural population depends entirely on agriculture for their living, but the sector is not going to be able to sustain them in the future, he says.

A total of 18 partnerships and 25 community groups are working in rural areas under ADM, which is funded by the State and the EU to promote social inclusion in rural areas.

Some of the ways in which this might be achieved were outlined at a recent seminar by Mr Martin Flatley, a rural development co-ordinator who has participated in setting up a range of new approaches to tackling rural poverty and exclusion.

These pilot initiatives include a range of programmes to improve rural transport and to regenerate rural areas through repopulation schemes.

The seminar also heard that last year more than 1,300 households became involved in a low-income smallholder households initiative, where groups targeted the development of new income from on and off-farm resources.

The report of the seminar highlights partnerships which encouraged the creation of 2,200 new businesses last year. ADM schemes also placed 1,500 people in employment, organised "homework clubs" for 10,000 young people to prevent early school-leaving and placed 4,500 men and women in training.

Problems remaining to be tackled, according to ADM, include the scarcity of State services in rural areas, transport, roads, telecommunications, and depopulation as a result of too few job opportunities.