High quality rural services ‘essential’

THE challenge of ensuring that rural areas do not become depopulated or void of sustainable economic activity as fewer people are engaged in full-time farming was highlighted at a seminar in Dublin yesterday.

Minister of State Noel Ahern, who officially opened the event, organised by Leader groups from Waterford, west Cork and Cavan-Monaghan, said there were more than 225,000 farmers in Ireland in the early 1970s.

It is estimated that in coming years this number will have fallen to a core of some 40,000 fully commercial farmers, with the rest either supplementing their income with off-farm employment, or taking up totally non-farm related jobs.