Pat Spillane: ‘Last chance saloon near for rural Ireland’

Gaelic football legend Pat Spillane has hit out at the "painfully slow progress" in implementing rural job-creation ideas put forward by a group he chaired.

The Kerryman had been invited by former environment minister Phil Hogan, now the EU agriculture commissioner, to head up the Government’s Commission for Economic Development of Rural Areas (CEDRA).

However, Mr Spillane said he became disillusioned over the past six months with Government inaction in implementing recommendations put forward in a CEDRA report.