Charles Ward: Rural Ireland Left Behind, Demands Real Investment
Charles Ward addressed the Minister's public consultation on the next rural development policy, welcoming the online process but warning that consultation without delivery is hollow. He outlined how chronic underinvestment in Donegal - from broadband and transport to healthcare and jobs - has driven population decline and left communities unfairly burdened.
Consultation welcomed
Charles Ward praised the Minister's decision to run an online public consultation to inform the next rural development policy, noting its importance for accessibility and for hearing people with disabilities and young people. He said more consultations in this format would help ensure communities have a voice in future decisions affecting rural Ireland.
Infrastructure gap in Donegal
Ward described a significant shortfall in infrastructure and investment across rural Donegal: patchy broadband rollout, limited public transport, poor access to healthcare and education, and constrained employment opportunities. He highlighted that Donegal has the second lowest disposable income per person, 24,686 euros, some 18% below the national average, which deepens structural disadvantage.
Consequences and demand for action
Ward warned that without meaningful, sustainable investment the divide between rural and urban areas will widen further. He pointed to recent local protests over fuel price spikes as evidence that residents are forced to bear the cost of neglect. He urged the government to move from words to implementation, making policy realistic and reflective of rural realities.
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I would like to start by saying I welcome the Minister undertook a public consultation to further inform the development of the next rural development policy. It is important to view our rural communities and what matters most for rural communities is that the people are considered within them and I'd also like to welcome the fact that the consultation was done online and I think this is very important so that everybody's access in the communities have their say and particularly with people with disabilities it's considered that their voices are heard and young people are heard and a whole government collaboration regarding this but I would also hope that many more consultations would be done this way in the future and it's very important and it would provide a great opportunity to inform future decisions regarding rural Ireland because as someone living in rural Ireland it is evident to me that the government has fallen significantly short in providing infrastructure resources investment needed to support and develop our communities and as a result people who live there are unfairly left to pay the price for government neglect. The lack of significant investment is reflected in many aspects of our daily lives from limited public transport to poor broadband. There are towns in Donegal that have only received fibre broadband as recently as only yesterday and we're informed about this all the time and we are so far behind everybody else. We're a decade behind Dublin and as well as inadequate accessibility to healthcare, education and employment opportunities are limited and these structural disadvantages have led to severe population decline within our rural communities and stagnation and growth is part of this and we are wondering why people in rural communities are forced to take to the streets when there is something like a price hike in fuel because it's down to the fact is this is their source heating oil and when they have to pay double what they had to pay a few months ago they will protest so people are forced to travel long distances to access essentials like healthcare, work and school and there's fewer employment opportunities and most opportunities are load paid. Rural areas in Donegal where we have the second lowest disposable income which per person is 24,686 that's 18% lower than the national average and yet our rural future policy seems to do very little to address any of these issues which are absolutely massive and the fact that it seems that there's nothing more that the government policy documents and this feels like kind of a hollow empty promise and there needs to be some form of implementation in these policies to outline and I would hope future documents would at least be more realistic and more reflective of our areas particularly in Donegal and without meaningful sustainable investment the gap between rural investment and continued investment will widen so you must act and implement.
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