For a country whose image still relies so much on rural life and culture, Ireland has devoted far too little constructive thought or material resources to conserving them through rural development. Yesterday's White Paper on Rural Development is doubly welcome for the consultations with which it was prepared and the serious proposals it makes for a much more integrated approach to the subject.
It would be a great mistake for a more rapidly urbanising Ireland to neglect the contribution rural development can make to the overall improvement of social life, whether in terms of environment, space for living and recreation or employment in agricultural and food industries. Modern communications dramatically shorten distances and can help to break down prejudices about rural backwardness and impoverishment. Modern media break down attitudinal barriers. As this White Paper points out, an improved transport infrastructure and the provision of post office facilities can make all the difference in making rural life more attractive. In contemporary Ireland, Karl Marx's celebrated phrase about "the idiocy of rural life" could, with justice, often be applied more appropriately to its urban manifestations.
Such values remain to a considerable extent aspirational, however, given the existing unequal balance of resources between different regions and between urban and rural areas. Many of the country's poorest communities are concentrated in rural areas. Demographic patterns ensure that this will continue to be the case as long as older, single farmers in the western counties predominate.
But increasingly, small-farm employment is a secondary occupation backed up by jobs in nearby towns and by environmental or tourist schemes. In sociological terms, the population of rural Ireland far exceeds that in agricultural employment, as many small towns have managed to survive and prosper with a much broader spread of job opportunities than heretofore. A key issue in regional (and therefore rural) development policy now - particularly in the 15 western counties - is whether to develop nodal towns such as Sligo or Castlebar rather than a decentralised approach which can spread resources more widely.
The White Paper proposes a special cabinet subcommittee chaired by the Taoiseach to "rural proof" major policies, serviced by an inter-departmental committee with a mandate to integrate policies and services at local level. A National Regional Development Forum is to be inaugurated in the autumn. The paper acknowledges the importance of EU structural, agricultural and rural development financing in achieving its objectives, especially through the National Plan now being completed for submission to Brussels.
But the effort to develop rural Ireland will have to rely more and more on national resources and political will if this document's potential is to be genuinely fulfilled. It will take difficult decisions and different policies to do that, notably in regional and local democracy, as well as through providing adequate funding. This White Paper deserves a sympathetic hearing from urban and rural dwellers alike as these choices are made in the months and years to come.