Urban and Rural Ireland - A tale of two Irelands.

[Baron von Biffo]

Biffo, you are clearly living in some parallel universe somewhere in the environs of Port Laoise. You basically stick your fingers in your ears and go "NaNaNa, I can´t hear you".

That is not when you are lying. I condemned Reilly again today for his stroke politics because I despise the gombeen kleptocratic parish pump pish politics you constantly defend here. I loathe Reilly and his type because I think he is a disgrace with the "stroke" politics he engages in.

You defend the system and as long as you continue to prop up gombeen kleptocracy with you plea for more rural Ministers but no other changes, you ought to be pulled up on it.

My suggestion for change you rubbished it because you plainly do not understand it. If it based on a system in a similarly sized country also not over blessed with natural resources (in contrast to Norway) which has 2.9% unemployment with net immigration, a thriving economy, no bent insolvent banks., then perhaps it is worth looking at. Not for you though, No, no sense of an enquiring mind at work in Laois. Just a begrudgers half-assed dismissal of something he cannot quite grasp.

Oh, and your own hatred for Dublin comes loud and clear through in your thread. If you didn´t hate it as much as you do, this thread would not exist in its current form.

This thread is about a very serious issue, the fact that our overwhelmingly urban cabinet is targeting rural areas for an unfair level of cuts to spare their own constituencies.

Continuing to respond to your increasingly strident and bizarre posts only distracts from that so I'll leave you to it from now on.

[Slim Buddha]

This thread is about a very serious issue, the fact that our overwhelmingly urban cabinet is targeting rural areas for an unfair level of cuts to spare their own constituencies.

Continuing to respond to your increasingly strident and bizarre posts only distracts from that so I'll leave you to it from now on.

Cuts are affecting the entire country. Any "stroke" politics like that of Reilly is to be deplored and I have denounced this often. Reilly´s behaviour is disgraceful but alas is no different than many of his predecessors from his party and FF, the strokemeisters supreme.

I want to see an end to stroke politics entirely. You just want more rural Ministers to balance the strokes.

Be honest about your agenda and while you are at it, seek a cure for myopia.

[Baron von Biffo]

Cuts are affecting the entire country.

As the many examples in this thread show, rural areas are being targeted for a disproportionate share of them.

[fluffybiscuits]

As the many examples in this thread show, rural areas are being targeted for a disproportionate share of them.

From a flick through the thread I think both you and Slim have a point but both have lost sight that the cuts are all across the board. The closure of the HIV unit in Cherry Orchard and the opening of PCC's in the constituency of the health minister are two stark contrasting situations which underline the cuts are all over. Roscommon/Leitrim has a catchment area of 50k but doesnt get a PCC does it? Again the divide between rural and urban is one that suits the government agenda.

[Baron von Biffo]

From a flick through the thread I think both you and Slim have a point but both have lost sight that the cuts are all across the board. The closure of the HIV unit in Cherry Orchard and the opening of PCC's in the constituency of the health minister are two stark contrasting situations which underline the cuts are all over. Roscommon/Leitrim has a catchment area of 50k but doesnt get a PCC does it? Again the divide between rural and urban is one that suits the government agenda.

This thread isn't about the fact there are cuts, it's about the way rural areas are being targeted for a disproportionate share of those cuts and why that's the case.

[DCon]

After this government term, the best solution for anyone capable will be to work in Dublin and live in Kilkenny.

Between the Dublin Ministers grabbing everything and Hogan putting a PCC for every 15 residents in Kilkenny, it would be the best of both worlds

In case anyone thinks I was being flippant..

Phil Hogan, the Minister for the Environment, met the minister to discuss primary care centres in February but denied that he lobbied him.

Nevertheless, two primary care health centres have opened in his Carlow/Kilkenny constituency since last year, two more are planned and Dr Reilly added one of them to his priority list.

Mr Hogan has done well in securing health facilities in his constituency. Only months in government, he set about delivering one of his election promises. In early June last year, he announced that the HSE had allocated €13m in its capital plan to upgrade the emergency department and other facilities at St Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny.

The curious thing was that Mr Hogan made this announcement a full month before the project was officially sanctioned by the HSE.

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/an...k-3258449.html

[Baron von Biffo]

In case anyone thinks I was being flippant..

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/an...k-3258449.html

How long before life insurance is loaded for anyone living in a constituency with no minister?

[Baron von Biffo]

Waterford city and county councils are to be merged. These mergers have the potential to further damage rural areas as the new councils will inevitably favour the larger urban centres.

The manager of the proposed new merged Limerick council is absolutely honest and up front about his focus being the city.

In the Waterford case, 'a source' said that commercial rates in the county area will be reduced to the city level. One would need to be particularly naive to expect that this will see services in the county area maintained at their current levels.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland...ar-210861.html

[Baron von Biffo]

Phil Hogan is to unveil his plan for local government 'reform' tomorrow. It's widely believed that it will include the merging of many local authorities and the abolition of others. The net effect will be the dominance of local government by larger urban centres.

This is all being done by diktat. People in the areas affected by these proposed changes haven't been consulted about them.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...325260448.html

In other news, Dublin residents are to be consulted about the type of local government they'd prefer. A referendum is to be held in tandem with the 2014 Local/EU elections to allow them to say if they want an elected mayor or not.

http://www.independent.ie/national-n...r-3258935.html

[Slim Buddha]

Phil Hogan is a rural Minister.

A referendum on an elected mayor or one from horse trading among cabals is mere window dressing. It is certainly not a change of the type necessary for local government to function nor will it eliminate planning corruption.

[DCon]

Looks like the Dublin Ministers are all being taken care of at the same time.

“The aim of this development is to build a number of new primary care centres in Dublin Mid-Leinster, Dublin North East, South and West Regions to deliver health and personal social services to the population of these areas,” the HSE outlined in tender documents.

"nationwide" does not mean what it once did

The HSE has launched a tender seeking a variety of design services to assist in planning permissions for up to 20 new primary care centres (PCCs) nationwide.

http://www.imn.ie/news/5056-hse-prog...re-development

[Baron von Biffo]

Looks like the Dublin Ministers are all being taken care of at the same time.

"nationwide" does not mean what it once did

http://www.imn.ie/news/5056-hse-prog...re-development

The nation now ends at the M50.

[Baron von Biffo]

Areas that have suffered the closure of their garda stations may get garda 'clinics' as a sop. For two hours a week gardaí will visit the local parish hall, if a patrol car can be found presumably, at which time they'll deal with clerical matters like passport applications.

There's no way to read this as anything other than a cynical stunt to allow the government a weak ground for claiming that rural areas haven't been completely stripped of police services.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/g...cs-571884.html

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

What do you expect from austerity? Continuing services to rural areas at the expense of urban areas?

Take a look at the population demographics once in a while. Are urban services being protected at the expense of rural areas? From what I've seen the answer is 'no'.

Do you ever take a position that isn't founded on a vested position you are familiar with? If you don't work in farming or something directly connected to the land you cannot expect in the middle of an austerity policy to have services maintained to 'boom' levels where the population is spread thinnest on the ground.

What did you expect? If you want to live in a rural setting then you can't surely expect to have an urban centre level of services- it is a bit Marie Antoinette.

[Baron von Biffo]

It might just be starting to dawn on FG TDs that rural people are, at least for the time being, allowed to vote.

http://www.independent.ie/national-n...s-3276097.html