Rural communities - Second-class citizens?

An obsession with cutbacks and increasingly centralised control over local and regional administration are having disastrous repercussions on the lives of tens of thousands in rural Ireland.

Following a rash of bank, post office and Garda station closures, a thinly scattered population feel they are being treated like second-class citizens.

Having closed nearly 40 Garda stations, the authorities have announced that 100 more will get the axe but deny this is caused by financial pressure. Arrant nonsense.