Carol Nolan: Rural Ireland faces 'managed decline'
Carol Nolan accuses the 2021 Rural Development Policy of delivering managed decline in rural Ireland and calls for urgent action. Speaking after a cost-of-living meeting, she highlighted patchy broadband, planning restrictions and the human cost of failed policy.
Carol Nolan argues the Rural Development Policy launched in March 2021 promised digital connectivity, revitalised towns and enhanced services but has presided over a period of managed decline. She says the previous government failed to deliver for rural communities.
Nolan cites a cost-of-living meeting, where residents described how excessive costs forced a couple to abandon plans to build their home after only digging a foundation. She points to patchy high-speed broadband and planning restrictions as concrete examples of the policy's shortcomings.
She also condemned the remarks of the former Taoiseach on Rural Ireland as disgraceful, saying he and Fine Gael should hang their heads in shame. Nolan frames the criticism as part of a wider call for accountability from the previous government.
Carol Nolan demands action rather than performative consultation: immediate steps to improve broadband, reform planning to support rural housing, and policies that genuinely support rural livelihoods and agriculture. She argues that without decisive change rural communities will continue to pay the price.
Main criticism
Carol Nolan argues the Rural Development Policy launched in March 2021 promised digital connectivity, revitalised towns and enhanced services but has presided over a period of managed decline. She says the previous government failed to deliver for rural communities.
Local impact
Nolan cites a cost-of-living meeting, where residents described how excessive costs forced a couple to abandon plans to build their home after only digging a foundation. She points to patchy high-speed broadband and planning restrictions as concrete examples of the policy's shortcomings.
Targeting Fine Gael and leadership comments
She also condemned the remarks of the former Taoiseach on Rural Ireland as disgraceful, saying he and Fine Gael should hang their heads in shame. Nolan frames the criticism as part of a wider call for accountability from the previous government.
What Nolan calls for
Carol Nolan demands action rather than performative consultation: immediate steps to improve broadband, reform planning to support rural housing, and policies that genuinely support rural livelihoods and agriculture. She argues that without decisive change rural communities will continue to pay the price.
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Transcript
This exercise risks being yet another exercise in performative consultation while Rural Ireland continues to pay the price for the previous government's failure to deliver. Launched in March 2021, the last Rural Development Policy was full of grand promises of a thriving countryside, digital connectivity for all, revitalised towns and villages, enhanced public services and active support for a vibrant, sustainable agricultural sector. The policy has instead presided over a period of managed decline, high-speed broadband remains patchy in far too many rural areas, housing provision in rural communities has been strangled by planning restrictions, and only last night I attended a cost-of-living meeting in Cloughan, which took place after the fuel protests, and we heard at that meeting that there was a case where a couple had to abandon their hope and dream of building a home due to the excessive costs and only got as far as digging out a foundation. That is very wrong. That is failing rural people. So we need to see action here. And as for Taoiseach Bradker, the former Taoiseach's comments on Rural Ireland were disgraceful. He should really hang his head in shame, and so should Fine Gael.