Sinn Féin Senator Pearse Doherty has presented a major report on the redevelopment of the west of Ireland to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. The report, entitled “Awakening the West: Overcoming Social and Economic Inequality”, is the first report of its kind in decades and has been put together after a major consultation process involving dozens of groups along the western seaboard.
Senator Doherty, who called for the report to be compiled to address social and economic inequality in the west of Ireland, was appointed by the committee as rapportuer and spent the summer months researching and engaging with groups along the western seaboard to inform the report.
Speaking on the launch of the report, Sen Doherty said: “Our aim with this report was to bring all the disparate groups across the west of Ireland together in one united voice to demand an end to the inequalities in the west and to come up with realistic and reasonable proposals to redevelop the west.
“We will be launching this report in every constituency in the west of Ireland early in the New Year and I have already presented a copy of it to all the groups who contributed to the consultation process.
“I genuinely feel that if the proposals contained within the report are adopted by the committee and acted upon then we can make serious inroads into addressing and reversing decades of economic and social inequality in the west.”
