One of the bright spots of the Irish economy of the past number of years has been the continued growth of the agricultural sector. In several aspects it could be argued that this has been due to successive governments taking the strategic view that a re-structured agricultural sector is a key pillar of the Irish economy. More critically, it might be argued that thanks to the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, Ireland is now reaping the benefits of previous years of investment in both agriculture and rural development. The importance of food production to restoring the Irish economy is now fully acknowledged and is a central plank in the current Programme for Government. The overall significance of the CAP also remains. For that reason, the publication of the European Commission’s proposals (COM(2011) 627 final2) on rural development, along with the overall development package underpinning cohesion and regional development policy marks a significant stage in the policy arena which will govern much of the local and rural development environment across Europe and in Ireland, particularly over the coming challenging decade.
The lack of a general debate on the policy proposals of the Commission is something which might be contrasted with previous times when such proposals were a feature of both political and general discussion given the importance of policies dealing with economic and social cohesion. While Ireland, despite the past number of years may be less dependent on such supports there is little argument on the continued importance of the rural policies of the Union for local producers and economies right across the State.
The recently published reform proposals of the Commission target rural areas to meet the objectives set for the CAP. These include:
1) Creation of viable food production across the Union;
2) Putting in place sustainable management of natural resources and climate action; and
3) Underpinning of balanced territorial development.
The Commission argues that the future CAP will not be a policy that caters only for a small part of the overall EU economy, but will be a policy of strategic importance for food security, the environment and territorial balance. Such thinking reflects the on-going move towards a more integrated diagonal policy environment at Union level. Here policies on the environment, for example, are actively embedded into the policy-making for rural development and vice versa. This is something which had been missing from past iterations of the CAP, given its then focus on securing production for food security, particularly in the formative years of the Common Market. Reflecting this thinking the Commission has identified six EU wide priorities for rural policy to 2020. Importantly, they reflect a similar move towards policy integration in Ireland, something which now needs to be actively implemented to ensure the country as a whole can continue to benefit from the progress of the last number of years. The six priorities include:
– fostering knowledge transfer and innovation in agriculture, forestry and rural areas;
– enhancing competitiveness of all types of agriculture and enhancing farm viability;
– promoting food chain organization and risk management in agriculture;
– restoring, preserving and enhancing ecosystems dependent on agriculture and
forestry;
– promoting resource efficiency and supporting the shift towards a low-carbon and
climate-resilient economy in the agriculture, food and forestry sectors;
– promoting social inclusion, poverty reduction and economic development in rural
areas.
Significantly, in the context of the reform of local public service delivery and, most notably, the alignment of the local development sector with local government, EU support through the LEADER Programme will be consistent and coordinated with the support for local development from other EU shared management funds. The proposal envisages a national rural development programme which will set out a coherent strategy to meet the above priorities. In the context of LEADER this should create the policy framework within which integrated socio-economic planning, as envisaged in the Programme for Government, can take place through the newly aligned institutional setting at local level. The importance of this approach is that it should facilitate clearer integration between the strategic process underpinning local communities and the local authorities with the national policy context.
Among the areas to be considered within the rural development strategy will be:
• The creation and development of new economic activity in the form of new farms, new businesses or new investments in non-agricultural activities is essential for the development and competitiveness of rural areas.
• Projects integrating at the same time agriculture, rural tourism through promotion of sustainable and responsible tourism in rural areas, natural and cultural heritage should be encouraged as well as renewable energy investments.
• The development of local infrastructure and local basic services in rural areas,
including leisure and culture, the renewal of villages and activities aimed at the restoration and upgrading of the cultural and natural heritage of villages and rural landscapes is an essential element of any effort to realise the growth potential and promote the sustainability of rural areas.
A prize for local innovative co-operation projects which will support transnational initiatives in favour of innovation is also highlighted, something which the local development sector, with the support of local government and other public agencies, and Irish Agriculture in general has a proven record.
Such thinking will no doubt be welcome at both local and national level. The challenge is to ensure that the strategic development needs of local communities are not just aligned at local level with the local authorities as envisaged in the Commission’s proposals but also that this alignment is also in place within the national policy context.
There will be a particular welcome for the Commission’s proposal to support access to Information and Communication Technologies and the development of fast and ultra-fast broadband. The thinking here is not simply restricted to positioning rural communities to be active economic agents, as importantly, in light of the on-going challenge of rural isolation, positioning communities to be better placed to address issues such as social inclusion, the development of services and infrastructure that could help mitigate trends of social and economic decline and depopulation of rural areas. The relationship between the local development process and local government is specifically highlighted in this instance with the Commission seeking to support development strategies which could be implemented “in accordance with plans for the development of municipalities and their basic services, where such plans exist, elaborated by one or more rural communes.” This welcome thinking should help build greater complementarity between the planning and development policies of local authorities with the business planning through the LEADER process. In addition, it may underpin the thinking of the current Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government in regard to creating sub county structures which are better placed to support community effort.
There was a time when much local focus on Europe was on the level of resourcing available to deliver both income supports for farming and on the immediacy of price levels for food products. The shift of European policy over the past decade has created a new motivation to be clearly informed on the policies of the Commission and that is that these policies could be central to the re-structuring of Ireland’s local institutional setting. It is with that in mind that both local and national policy-makers across several layers of government should be focused on ensuring that there is clear complementarity between the reform of local government and the planning for vibrant rural communities right across the State.
