Are you interested in what’s happening to rural Ireland in recent years and are you wondering why the obvious decline isn’t being halted ? Then, The Late Late Show will include a panel discussion on the very topic tonight.
Panelists will include: Independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice along with Mairead Lavery of the Irish Farmer’s Journal and businessman Peter Ward, a businessman from Tipperary.
There are calls for a Ministry for Agriculture to give the sector its undivided attention in any new government. And Michael Healy Rae laying down a Minister for Rural Affairs caveat for his support – is it possible then that these simple changes will halt the galloping and tangible decline in the fortunes of a badly frightened rural Ireland.
Doors not Being Opened
Politicians and canvassers were lamenting the fact that doors were not being answered to their knocking in the run-up to the February 26th general election.
Even a cursory following of the RTÉ One monthly programme Crimecall will open your eyes to the fear that now stalks the old Ireland of the Welcomes.
Farmers in rural areas are having to take extraordinary measures to protect their properties against increasingly ‘professional’ and slick teams of thieves.
And Joe Duffy’s RTÉ Radio One Liveline regularly features and tracks the trails of destruction left by conmen posing as tradesmen with vans and ladders strapped to the roof and no names on the side panels.
And people wonder why those in the rural areas of the country don’t answer their doors to strangers. And many of the people who call at election times are indeed strangers to that frightened section of rural dwellers. It is too much to ask of one programme on one Friday night that it would fix all that ails rural Ireland.
However, the fact that what ails it is being addressed is a good start and it would be great to think that it would go on from here. The Late Late Show is on RTÉ One after the 9pm News.
