Lack of invisible infrastructure a glaring issue

Rural Ireland has the potential to tap into that zeitgeist, if the community and political will exists to make it happen, writes Joe Gill

While the Irish economy, at an aggregate level, has returned to highly impressive growth rates in 2017, one large part of society needs deep thought — the rural economy.

Small towns and villages, and their hinterlands, are bleeding people from emigration and movement to larger cities. Farming is under sustained pressure to rationalise, and this is reducing the number of family farms throughout the country.