Pauline Tully
Question:31. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development the timeframe within which she plans to introduce a rural proofing model; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20900/24]
View answerThursday, 9 May 2024
Questions (31)
Written answers
Our Rural Future, Government's 5 year rural development policy to 2025, commits to developing an effective rural proofing approach to ensure the needs of rural communities are fully considered in the development of Government policies.
Last year, my Department published a body of research including the international experience of rural proofing which is available on the Department’s website. The available evidence is very clear that effective rural proofing has been difficult to successfully achieve and there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach. To inform the approach to rural proofing in an Irish context, my Department initiated Rural Proofing Pilots on a selected number of key policies as follows:
• the review of the National Planning Framework being led by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage;
• the development of the new Sustainable Tourism Policy led by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media;
• the development of the new National Hubs Strategy by my own Department; and
• the development of the new Social Enterprise Strategy due to be published shortly.
• The experience under the pilots has led us to understand that Rural Proofing is not a policy or a model. Rural proofing is a process. It speaks to the way in which we view policy through a rural lens and manage our work to help ensure that our policies and services understand, and take account of, the specific needs and capacities of rural communities.
• Broadly, in rolling out the rural proofing pilots, we have learned that the process should systematically ensure that;
• early consideration is given to identify those issues and capacities which particularly affect rural communities in order to place these are placed at the centre of the policy design process;
• rather than presuming that views will be proffered, as part our standard approach to public consultation, that rural communities are systematically prompted to reflect and advise on policy and any proposals as they relate to them as being a rural dweller as opposed to an urban dweller;
• in using a Place Based Approach to rural development, that policy makers and service providers must meaningfully engage with rural people and businesses who can articulate their own needs best.
• My intention is that a report on the work we have undertaken, together with a broad approach to a rural proofing process with guidance documents, will be made in the near future.
Question No. 32 answered with Question No. 12.