‘30% drop in off-farm employment being exposed by downturn’
David Meredith, Teagasc Rural Economy Research Centre, said every individual living in rural Ireland did not benefit from the economic boom, but neither did it pass them by and affected them in a specific way.
“We had a situation when there were two primary industries in rural areas, agriculture and manufacturing, which had been in decline. People were losing jobs in those sectors. But people replaced these jobs by moving into construction.
