The head of Irish Rural Link says regional development is the only way to protect rural Ireland.
CEO of the organisation Seamus Boland says Dublin is now in crisis and the government has to develop natural ‘regions’ such as a tourism region in the north west.
He has made the comments this week in response to queries by Ocean FM News on what can best protect rural Ireland as reports of threats to post offices, buses and funding for roads continues.
This week, it also emerged that over 30 jobs at the Department of Social Protection in Sligo are to be recentralised to Dublin.
Seamus Boland says in the past decentralisation failed because the departments that were moved outside Dubin had no natural links to those areas:
His comments come as a major conference on rural Ireland is taking place in Sligo today.
The conference which is taking place in the Model is called Rural Ireland One Region One Vision.
A number of speakers will be at the event including David Minton, director of the Northern and Western Regional Assembly (NWRA) who has organised the conference.
FF Councillor in Sligo Seamus Kilgannon is Chairing today’s conference:
