Rural policy needs to focus on ‘active’ grants for job creation

Rural policy needs to move from “passive” income supports to “active” job-creating grants, says UCD’s Prof Suzi Jarvis.

The founding director of the Innovation Academy UCD cites Ireland’s rural policy as a contributor to its poor rural job creation record. She notes that 31% of UK farm enterprises have diversified into other areas, versus just 2% in Ireland.

“There are significant untapped resources in rural communities that have the potential to deliver jobs,” said Prof Jarvis, speaking at the launch of the academy’s Rural Entrepreneurship Programme, being delivered in Galway and Clonmel in 2013 and in Mullingar and Letterkenny in 2014. “Until we successfully integrate entrepreneurial education into these communities and understand the challenges facing potential and aspiring entrepreneurs, we will fail them and the wider population. This is why the Innovation Academy UCD is taking the rural entrepreneurship programme into the local communities who will benefit most.”