Ireland to play pivotal role in reversing Europe’s rural exodus

Rapid urbanisation has caused not only a whole host of problems in Europe’s cities, it has also caused a crisis in the countryside — and Ireland’s countryside may be especially at risk of becoming an empty wasteland.

EUROPE'S countryside is in crisis with more than three-quarters of the population now living in towns and cities. This flight from the land has been even more dramatic in Ireland with more than a third of citizens now living in Dublin.

The result is creating major environment, housing, transport and crime problems in the urban areas, while the countryside is in danger of becoming a vast wasteland with the death of rural villages.