Our Rural Future does not got far enough says Clarke

(Above) Deputy Sorca Clarke.

Deputy Sorca Clarke has slammed the government’s new plan for the revitalisation of rural Ireland, Our Rural Future.

The Sinn Féin TD says that the plan is "is far too little and far too late to stem the tide of rural decline".

"There is an absence of concrete proposals to address jobs, housing and rural infrastructure. The document shows that the government does not understand the scale of the problem in terms of rural decline. Sinn Féin’s Community Wealth Building programme offered them a possible alternative and they chose not to embrace it.

“Moves to expand remote working and extend rural broadband demonstrates important progress but must be backed up action. This makes the commitment in the Programme for Government to accelerate the broadband roll-out even more necessary. Since Covid-19 hit, the spotlight has been put on the lack of broadband when remote learning and remote working became essential overnight.

“Broadband is only one aspect though. We need long term strategic solutions to these problems. The current proposals do not offer that.”