Recession ‘hits all rural dwellers’

THE recession is hurting all rural dwellers from the youngest child through to couples struggling to pay their mortgages and the elderly, it was claimed yesterday.

Seamus Boland, chief executive of the Irish Rural Link which campaigns for sustainable rural communities, outlined the situation at the opening of its annual conference in Dunhill Eco Park, Co Waterford.

He said there is a presumption that even low-income rural households have sufficient surplus capacity to meet the additional levies.