Rural lobby group set up

A LOBBY group representing fishermen, farmers, publicans and other rural industries will be established in west Cork tonight.

The Rural Ireland Alliance will highlight concerns about the future sustainability of rural Ireland, bring a variety of different interests under one umbrella and is prepared to run a candidate in future general elections should the need arise, according to one of the group’s five founders, Sheehan’s Fishing Company in Castletownbere.

The firm’s managing director, Eddie Sheehan, said: “This is an alliance between trawlermen, inshore fishermen, farmers, publicans and anybody who has a vested interest in seeing a sustainable future for rural Ireland.

“Our fishing is being sold out and Irish fishermen are being pushed out of a job — in the inshore fishery sector they are closing the commercial salmon fishing.

“Farmers are worried about the nitrates directive, which limits their ability to dispose of slurry, and rural publicans have suffered dramatically because of the scrutiny on social drinking and the ban on tobacco. They are at a disadvantage compared to urban pubs whose customers can call on taxis. At the moment all of these interests are represented by separate groups.”

*The Rural Ireland Alliance will be formally established at a meeting in Dunmanway’s Parkway Hotel at 8.30pm tonight. Contact 027-70901.