New Report on Rural Ireland Published

The Commission for the Econonomic Development of Rural Areas has just published a report on Rural Ireland entitled 'Energising Ireland's Rural Economy'.

The report outlines the changes in rural Ireland over time, the impact of unemployment and migration on rural areas and small towns and it makes a series of recommendations on an integrated approach to rural economic development. Recommendations include areas such as rural transport, investment in the regions, mobilising community capacity, supporting local enterprise, broadband and water amongst others. 

The Commission calls on Government to prepare a clear and committed Rural Economic Development Policy Statement. This statement should outline in detail how the Government proposes to support integrated rural economic  development to 2025 including addressing the recommendations of this Commission.

Social Justice Ireland welcomes the publication of the report and the recommendations.  In our forthcoming Socio-Economic Review 2014 we make a number of policy proposals on rural development including developing a new national rural strategy and ensuring all employment strategies and plans have a specific strategy for rural and regional strategy employment.

The CEDRA Report is available here.