Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 25 Mar 1997

Vol. 476 No. 7

Written Answers. - Urban-Rural Demography.

Ivor Callely

Question:

64 Mr. Callely asked the Taoiseach the number of people living in areas designated as urban; the number of people living outside urban areas; if he will give a breakdown of such figures; and his understanding of the difficulties which may arise in heavily populated urban areas and the need for extra incentives to address such urban areas. [7839/97]

The Taoiseach

The following table gives a breakdown, by town size and gender, of the 2,010,700 people living in urban areas, i.e. in towns of 1,500 persons or more.

Area	Population	Males	Females
Greater Dublin area	915,516	437,789	477,727
Other county boroughs	342,542	166,223	176,319
Other towns of 10,000 plus	336,411	163,895	172,516
Towns 5,000 to 10,000	218,564	107,349	111,215
Towns 3,000 to 5,000	96,403	47,299	49,104
Towns 1,500 to 3,000	101,264	49,556	51,708
Total urban areas	2,010,700	972,111	1,038,589
Other areas	1,515,019	781,307	733,712
Total population	3,525,719	1,753,418	1,772,301

Source: Census of Population, 1991.

Corresponding information from the 1996 census will be available in the second half of 1997.

The Government has long recognised that tackling poverty and social exclusion, in all parts of the country and in all communities, is one of the major challenges currently facing Ireland. We have a particular concern about the concentrations of people living in poverty and suffering from chronic and cumulative disadvantage. The two typical areas are the inner cities and the sprawling suburban housing estates. Both are characterised by large numbers of people experiencing long-term unemployment, where the economic, social and environmental infrastructure is in decline, or was never in place, and by communities affected by social exclusion and the problems of vandalism, drug misuse and lawlessness.

The national agreement, Partnership 2000 for Inclusion Employment and Competitiveness, sets out, in a concise and comprehensive way, the strategic approach we have agreed in order to tackle social exclusion, in an integrated manner with full inter-sectoral co-ordination. It recognises that access to jobs is the key to ensuring that the benefits of economic growth are shared by all, and it has specific paragraphs on the particular needs of major urban centres.