Rural affairs minister: Token action gives politics a bad name

Coming from a Coalition that has presided over the dismantling of vital building blocks in the social fabric of rural Ireland, the Government’s plan to appoint a junior minister for rural affairs smacks of cynicism and may come too late to save a dying population.

Nowhere is the sense of disillusion with politics more obvious than in the towns and villages of rural Ireland where people feel they have been abandoned. A concept originally proposed last April by a commission chaired by former Kerry footballer Pat Spillane, the aim is to find ways of revitalising the economy outside major urban centres.

Unfortunately, the plan has all the signs of being cobbled together as a last-minute afterthought just before the Cabinet reshuffle. Expected to go to a Labour deputy, the appointment will be seen as a sop to appease Tánaiste Joan Burton whose party did poorly enough in the reshuffle. It reflects the kind of token action that gives Irish politics a bad name.