Rural advocates: Consult us on changes aimed at rejuvenating country villages

Irish Rural Link has said services in local communities are being diminished at a time when the Government has launched a number of initiatives aimed at rejuvenating those same towns and villages.

Ahead of its annual conference, which begins today, the organisation called for any planned or proposed closures of services such as post offices or Garda stations to stop immediately until a new protocol on rural services is formed.

Irish Rural Link CEO Seamus Boland said such a protocol would ensure that, in addition to economic and value-for-money analysis attached to any planned closure, an evaluation of the social and community consequences should be factored in under what he said should be a structured framework for making those decisions.