A future Ireland with the voluntary and community sector as central was critically important, but was being overlooked in this difficult time by the Government, Fr Seán Healy, director of Social Justice Ireland, told a conference in the southwest at the weekend.
He stressed that communities in rural areas no longer consisted entirely of people working on the land and were not to be defined solely by agricultural links.
“Small and medium enterprises in rural Ireland tend to be forgotten. Less than a quarter of people employed in rural Ireland work in agriculture,” said Fr Healy.The numbers unemployed in the southwest had risen by more than 200 per cent, he said.
Poverty had been increasing in the region and it was “ironic” that when demand for services was growing, funding was being drastically reduced to community and voluntary organisations.
“We need a real serious look at the vision that is guiding society in Ireland. Strong . . . communities must be at the centre of any vision.” There must be a balance between the economic and social, he added.