McCarthy denies report is attack on rural areas

THE chairman of Bord Snip has rejected claims its €5.3 billion cost-saving package was an attack on rural Ireland.

Economist Colm McCarthy said Irish Farmers Association president Padraig Walshe was wrong to suggest the report was prepared with “no appreciation of the importance of the rural economy beyond the Pale”.

Mr McCarthy said the board was not about pitting cities against farming communities but making the whole economy stable.