DEAR SIR:

We in the peripheries of rural Ireland have been treated by successive governments down the years like a group of people with no standing, not enough to be listened to. We are given the crumbs off the table just like giving a child a lollipop to keep us quiet.

I am asking all rural TDs in Dáil Éireann in this letter to start to act without delay. In order to rejuvenate the peripheries of rural Ireland, there are four main points.

Infrastructure: For any government to transform rural Ireland, it is imperative that a few financial services are created to deal separately with rural Ireland, similar to those in Dublin and the city. It would be the key to which everything else would rest; it would be a flagship for rural Ireland. That would encourage small start-up businesses. Companies in rural Ireland, especially in the peripheries, would need to be given tax incentives.

For example, this could be given for small companies with no more than eight to 10 people. This needs to be done alongside access to broadband, roads, rail services, all helping to keep garda stations, post offices, small shops and schools open.

We need to create hubs; we need sustainability.

Health: We need air ambulances to get patients to hospital within the “golden hour”. The life of the patient living in rural Ireland is as important as the patient within ten minutes drive of the hospital.

Fisheries: Especially with Brexit on the horizon, we need urgent talks on the Common Fisheries Policy – that has to be renegotiated without fear or favour.

If we only got an extra 1% in quota it would create 400/500 jobs. Shellfish industries are lacking the kind of imaginative investment that in a short period of time can generate 5,000 plus jobs.

When Britain leaves the EU, deal or no deal, they will immediately leave the Common Fisheries Policy and they will protect their fisheries at all costs. They are planning on charging all EU trawlers entering their fishing grounds and any fish caught must be landed in Britain.

Convergence: We desperately need convergence in the peripheries to enable us obtain up to 90-95% grant aid as anybody who is economically literate will understand. At this moment in time, we are lumped with big industries in cities for GDP purposes. This sounds the death knell for rural advancement that has to be changed immediately. It is easy to see the great results from convergence when you look at Devon and Cornwall, the Scilly Isles and south and west Wales. It is self explanatory.

Is there the political will from the Government to acknowledge these pressing needs for the people of rural Ireland and the peripheries or have they been completely lulled into a view of the markets as the answer to all eventualities?