Rural Ireland is facing a difficult future but it's not a Doomsday scenario, Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan said this evening.
Ms Coughlan was speaking in the wake of the Teagasc report Rural Ireland in 2025which warned that as few as 10,000 people will be engaged in full-time farming 20 years from now if the current imbalance in regional development continues.
It warns that, along with agriculture, traditional sources of employment in rural areas such as manufacturing and the building trade are likely to decline in the longer term.
The report was compiled by an expert group from NUI Maynooth, University College Dublin and Teagasc. Dr Liam Downey, who together with Patrick Commins co-ordinated the report, described it as an early wake-up call.
"Agriculture, construction and multinational companies have been key drivers of the rural economy. The relative contribution of agriculture is set to decline. Many of the multinational companies are strongly oriented to the manufacture of goods at a relatively low point in the value chain. These labour intensive industries are now open to the growing attractiveness of lower cost economies in central Europe and elsewhere," Dr Downey said.
The report calls for the establishment of a Rural Policy Implementation Group to co-ordinate policies developed by Government departments and agencies to stimulate rural enterprise and employment. It also recommends the establishment of a dedicated funding system aimed at supporting innovation in rural areas.
It said the development of the "knowledge economy" was key and noted that while a higher proportion of young people in rural areas attain third-level qualifications, the majority do not return to work.
"This is perhaps the most serious problem facing rural Ireland over the coming decades. Establishing the necessary infrastructural, human and financial resources to attract and embed a high number of these well-educated young people is the biggest challenge facing rural Ireland," said Dr Downey.
But Minister Coughlan strongly disputed the figures, saying Government policy on rural development was succeeding.
"Yes there's a decline in farming and yes there are difficulties, but that being said this is not a Doomsday situation.
"What we're doing is very much struggling in the face of World Trade Organisation developments within the European Community.
"But that being said, the investment supports are there, the financial supports are there, and the policies are still being driven."
Fine Gael spokesperson on regional development Paul Connaughton said the report "paints a bleak picture".
Mr Connaughton said the Government was failing to implement existing strategies such as the National Spatial Strategy. He also highlighted the imbalance in regional investment in areas such as infrastructure.
Recent figures show spending on transport infrastructure in the BMW regions is over €200 million below the Government target.
"Today's Report paints a bleak picture for rural Ireland in twenty years. Given our current Government's dismal record it's very difficult to see how its pessimistic predictions will not come true," Mr Connaughton said.
Labour agriculture spokeswoman Mary Upton said the decision made today will dictate the future for rural life.
"With the prospect of only 10,000 full-time farmers in 2025, how are the million other people in rural Ireland going to survive? How will rural communities be sustained unless something is done today?"
"This is not a time, as this report underlines, for a laissez-faire approach or pie in the sky pronouncements from the Minister for Agriculture and Food. It is time to develop and implement policies and reports such as these tell us are now necessary for rural Ireland's future survival," Mrs Upton said.