Five years on from its launch, the policy to guide the development of rural Ireland is entering a new phase as people are being asked to contribute their ideas on how to revitalise and regenerate communities across the country.

Our Rural Future was introduced in 2021 and is coming to the end of its five-year term, but Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht, Dara Calleary believes the scaffolding that has been erected over the past five years has provided a strong framework for the next phase of the programme.

Sitting down with Irish Country Living in his Ballina constituency office earlier this month, Minister Calleary shares his hope that by continuing to harness the strong community engagement in every county in the country, his department can further bolster the work being done on the ground in rural Ireland.

“We’ve spent the past year conducting public consultation and our online survey received responses from 1,300 people, with eight public meetings held over the summer. We’ve also brought the voices of the Rural Youth Assembly on board and we’ve had good stakeholder engagement,” says the Minister.

“We now have a draft of a final consultation document that we are launching for four weeks, and we want people throughout rural Ireland to own the policy, rather than me or the department telling them what is in it.”

The new version of Our Rural Future, which will run from 2026-2031, will be based on four pillars; Thriving Rural Places; A Strong and Diverse Rural Economy; Resilient Rural Communities and A Greener Rural Future, with submissions welcome on all areas of development.

Since taking office at the start of the year, Minister Calleary, who holds two portfolios – the Social Protection briefing is also in his charge – says he and his department are examining what approaches and measures are working to help engage communities in rural areas.

“We held a meeting with GAA president Jarlath Burns and the GAA demographics committee in recent weeks that involved a very good discussion around the work they have done around the country,” he says.

“This is obviously led from a GAA perspective but the data they’ve collated is very interesting and worthwhile in terms of feeding into the work we are doing.”

The Fianna Fáil TD, who represents Mayo, says the challenges facing rural Ireland have commonality across the country and that the single-biggest issue is housing.

He believes that the focus on vacancy and dereliction in the Government’s new housing plan ‘Delivering Homes, Building Communities’ will be good for rural communities. However, he says the issue of housing in Gaeltacht regions is harder to solve.

The influx of seasonal residents to their holiday homes in many Gaeltacht areas in recent years has led to housing shortages for those from the area, pushing prices of available houses beyond the reach of many first time, Irish speaking buyers.

“We have work to do in the Gaeltacht where housing is a particular challenge within my ministry because we need to get people living in these areas and speaking the language, so I’m really focused on that,” he adds.

Acknowledging the difficulties of insufficient public transport in rural areas, the Minister says he is hopeful an ‘on demand’ Local Link bus service can deliver solutions.

“The Local Link service has come on really strongly across the country in recent years but I acknowledge that there is a lot of work to be done,” he adds.

“We are very lucky in Mayo to have one of three TFI Anseo services, the other two being operated in Killarney and Limerick city. Passengers can book a bus to pick them up from a location within the service area on the TFI Anseo App and as the service doesn’t follow a fixed route, people can use it to travel where they need to go within their area.

“This is the direction I want to go. Sarah Togher is our Local Link executive in Mayo and she and her team are doing a lot of work to expand the service into the evening so that is something I’m very keen to track to see if the demand is there beyond 5pm. I want to see a service in the evening in rural Ireland that would help address the social isolation that is so prevalent.

“It’s a year-long pilot project so we will have to see how it goes. Funding will of course be part of the decision-making process, but it is effectively an on-demand service so we will need to determine if the demand is there and if it can be proven.”

Digital meitheal

In recent weeks, the National Hub Strategy saw the opening of its 400th hub, which is in Co Westmeath.

Minister Calleary believes that bridging the digital divide experienced in many rural communities is key, with hubs providing broadband to those who are still without high speed services in their homes.

“The digital divide, where people in rural areas are feeling disconnected as more and more day-to-day services move online, is something we need to keep on top of,” he says.

“We now have 400 hubs nationally and we need to build on this.

“Because these hubs are run by local people in local centres, there is a trust element that I think can help people bridge that digital divide. The focus of these hubs is local enterprise and to support people working remotely but I think they can evolve to something greater as more services go online.

“I really believe in meitheal, where we all come together for a common purpose. It was forgotten about and overlooked and probably dismissed but we need it now more than ever. A lot of people say digitalisation is making us more isolated, which it is, but I think a digital meitheal, based around the hubs, addresses this challenge.

“We want to give people the skills to be able to manage their affairs online. It’s not about giving people in the community access to private banking details. But that person in the hub can be the bridge to give those who aren’t digitally literate the confidence to use and have trust in the apps.

“Everything in farming is now online through the Department of Agriculture and more services are going that way.

“These hubs have been a huge success and we intend them to be very much part of the next phase of Our Rural Future.”

The importance of volunteers throughout rural Ireland is another key focus for the Minister and his team as they finalise the next phase of rural development.

“I was taken by how successful the many agricultural shows I attended throughout the summer are. They are a great celebration of rural communities and rural Ireland,” he says.

“But they cannot happen without volunteers and the show committee members have the same passion for their areas that those who represent their clubs in football or hurling have. It’s just a different jersey.

“I’m lucky that I travel the country and see all these incredible initiatives and I come back to Mayo County

Council, whose heads I have fried, asking why we aren’t doing similar work here.

“But likewise, when I meet with other communities, I tell them about what I have seen working in Mayo.

“We are lucky that the main office of the Department of Rural, Community and Gaeltacht Affairs is here in Ballina. Before my time, my father would have been partially responsible. Roinn na Gaelige has a big presence in Furbo in Galway and a presence in Donegal as well as Trinity Point in Dublin so three of our four offices are based in

rural Ireland. The teams who work with us are involved in their local communities so they are bringing ideas to the table.

“That is how we have framed the Our Rural Future policy and that is what we are hoping to get from this final round of public consultation,” adds the Minister.

Submissions to the Our Rural Future consultation process can be emailed to rural.consultation@drcdg.gov.ie with Our Rural Future Consultation in the title.

Postal submissions can also be sent to Our Rural Future Consultation Rural Strategy Unit Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht Government Offices, Ballina, Co Mayo, F26 E8N6.

The consultation process closes on Friday 12 December 2025 and those who respond with submissions will have them published online after the consultation period ends.