Patsy McGlone 18th November 2009

MCGLONE: RURAL PROOFING HAS FAILED

SDLP Agriculture spokesperson Patsy McGlone MLA has raised concerns about the effectiveness of rural proofing Executive policies ahead of proposals to create a Rural Proofing unit within the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development with responsibility for all other departments.

The Mid Ulster MLA said: “Much has been made of rural proofing policies before their adoption by the Executive but there are real questions about the effectiveness of this process.

“Rural communities have seen the effects of the financial pressures on Executive budgets at first hand. Rural hospitals have been stripped of acute services and access to services provided through other departments has been steadily reduced.

“If rural proofing was working there would have been intervention by now on these and other issues.

“Instead rural communities face further isolation as departments seek to implement even more cuts.

“However, pooling responsibility for rural proofing within one department risks making a bad job even worse.

“As we’ve seen with the Climate Change Unit that has been bunkered in DOE, despite the best efforts of some officials, that unit was entirely reliant on co-operation from the other departments and ministers including its own.

“Even if rural proofing had proved itself, the record of the Executive to date does not hold out much hope of an embedded rural proofing unit in the Department of Agriculture being able to perform an effective regulatory function on policy formation within other departments.

“As a member of the committee for Agriculture and Rural Development I will do all I can to ensure that the issues that are important to the rural community are at the heart of policy in all areas.”

ENDS