ALTHOUGH 40 per cent of the Irish population is deemed “rural” by the Central Statistics Office, less than 5 per cent of European rural funding goes to rural programmes, a conference in Westmeath was told last night.
Séamus Boland, chief executive of Irish Rural Link (IRL), told his organisation’s annual conference, the other 95 per cent goes to agriculture.
“And a disproportionate amount of that funding goes to the very rich as there is no cap on payments as they are not means tested,” said Mr Boland, whose organisation has a membership of nearly 500 rural community groups.
He said in the upcoming negotiations on the rural development funding package from the EU under the Common Agricultural Policy (Cap), there seemed to be little idea as to where the priorities lay.
“Indeed the confusion that rural is defined by agriculture would still seem to be the official line, when in fact rural has a much broader remit,” he said.
Future rural development funding programmes needed to be much more sector neutral and focus on job creation and the long-term sustainability of the rural economy in order to tackle the rise in unemployment, he added.
Mr Boland said unemployment in western and midland areas, for example, was 1.5 per cent above the national average.
He said IRL, which represents locally-based rural groups in disadvantaged and marginalised rural areas, was seeking revisions of the Cap to ensure the Leader rural development axis received a much larger share of funding.
He said IRL was also seeking a reduction in bureaucracy for greater ease of access to funding, particularly in light of recent confusion about funding for food businesses.
Helen Dunne, policy and communications officer with IRL, said the rural broadband scheme, provided under Cap funding was an example of how funding could be strategically directed in the future to benefit the entire rural economy.
“Irish Rural Link believes future rural development policy must take on board the diverse nature of rural areas, both economically and socially, and the fact that support for agriculture alone is not in the best long-term interest of rural communities,” she said.
The IRL annual conference is continuing in Castlepollard, Co Westmeath, and among the speakers today will be Minister of State for Housing and Planning Willie Penrose.