Budget 2012 will come down hardest on the people of rural Ireland and reveals the “anti-rural agenda” of the Fine Gael-Labour coalition.
This is the view of Fianna Fáil Galway East TD Michael Kitt who is calling on all Galway rural based TDs and senators to “make their voices heard” on behalf of rural constituents.
While overall Dep Kitt was alarmed by how the cuts will affect rural communities, he was particularly concerned by the education cuts, which he said disproportionately and “overwhelmingly fall on rural schools”.
“The cuts in the primary pupil teacher ratio are being confined to schools of four teachers and fewer, the majority of which are found in rural areas and provincial towns,” Dep Kitt pointed out. “At the same time, the only scheme which targets educational disadvantage in rural areas appears to have been singled out for the Minister’s axe.”
Dep Kitt was also concerned by the doubling of school transport charges from €50 to €100 and the primary family payment to €220. He said these will affect rural school pupils and families far more than urban dwellers.
He also said the “anti-rural agenda” of the education cuts was further underlined by the cuts in post-graduate grants.
“These cuts involve removing the maintenance element of the grants,” he said. “This is something which rural students living away from home rely on more than any other group.”
Looking at how Budget 2012 will affect other aspects of rural Ireland, he said farmers will be hit by means testing and income criteria changes to the Farm Assist scheme, and that this will be exacerbated by the decision to slash the Disadvantaged Areas Scheme and cut REPS.
“The most vulnerable farmers living in the least profitable land will be hit hard by these changes which will have the effect of damaging the agricultural industry as a whole,” he said.
Major Government cuts to local Garda services will result in many stations being closed, but as Dep Kitt pointed out, the majority of these happen to be in rural areas. A total of 31 stations are being shut down, with 16 to close in Connacht/Ulster.
“The communities affected will be left more vulnerable to crime as the State fails to fulfil the most basic obligation to protect its citizens,” he said. “These stations were kept open when the State had a significantly smaller force than it does now, so why is the Government choosing to close them?”
He also criticised the abolition of the Local Improvements Scheme for rural roads which he said will “further hit isolated communities and households in rural Ireland by depriving them of investment in the roadways”.
