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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
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