Rural areas ‘need development zones’ to recover

Special economic development zones need to be set up to pump jobs into country areas, a top level report has insisted.

A refocusing of the way central government looks at rural Ireland would include the environment minister taking on the role of business co-ordinator for non-urban communities, the study says.

The report, by the Commission for the Economic Development of Rural Areas (Cedra), stresses that this is necessary to drive down stubbornly high unemployment rates outside of the State’s five main population centres.